6-15-11 Lesson

  I was a little nervous after my last ride with Meika on Sunday.  I'm fortunate to have a wonderful trainer who not only is training Meika but myself as well.  She keeps me grounded, focused and above all calm.

Amy and her gorgeous baby Appaloosa Fiona

  Before our lesson we walked around the round pen and picked up pieces of glass that seem to appear there overnight.  I'm walking and Meika's following.  I stop and bend down to pick up glass and I feel her breath on my back or butt.  It was pretty funny.  I even felt a nibble on my hat.  She can be cute.

  This afternoon I lunged Meika without a lunge line and using only a lunge whip.  Meika was wonderful.  I tried this last time the lunging went well, but the drawing in was 2 times out of 10 tries.  Tonight....4 complete draws.  I took one step back and took the draw stance, patted my thighs and made the clicking sound.  That worked each and every time.  I was so damn proud of her!

  Then we moved on to opening the gate and not letting her charge through it.  We did a lot of whoa, stopping and standing still.  Then moving up a foot and repeating that process.  Finally Amy opened up the fence to the field and Meika and I walked through it.  The main focus was getting her to turn and go past the open fence and continue on.  The first couple of times were rough but I didn't let her get away with it.  We did turn and finally walked passed it to where I wanted her to go.  Ok, got that down.  Hopefully, I can still do this without Amy.