Basics

I made a discovery that my foundation got some cracks in it.  So over the past week or so I've been fixing it up a bit.  My porcupine game had lost it's lightness.  Any hindquarter yielding was pathetic, no crossing over, walking off.

Just small tasks, so I've been having short sessions out in the pasture.  Porcupine has regained its lightness, and Cal's hindquarter yielding is almost back to pivoting on the front feel and crossing over with the hind legs.  I've been playing on the 12' line to make the rope easier to handle for close porcy and driving games. Seeing as my foundation was struggling a bit, I've also been playing with the basics of the other games.  I am soooo happy to say that I can finally really consistently play all the usual friendly games using the carrot stick with Cal.  (It took me so long to get over the "toss the savvy string over back" without Cal lifting his head and tensing.)  My bring back in the yo-yo game has also become a phase 1.  Which I was having a lot of trouble with when I started playing on the 45', probably because I couldn't even get it on a 12'.

Lastly, I've been doing quite a bit of driving from zone 3, using that to play approach and retreat from the herd.  Seeing how far away I can get and where we can go confidently.  That also has been improving.  When reaching a threshold the very thing that I wanted to do (ask him to go over it), I didn't do.  Instead, I would maybe practice hindquarter yielding.  Or I would move his front end to face and different direction and go there.  If it wasn't a big threshold, I'd see if I could get four laps at a relaxed walk.  Today we explored almost all over the house pasture, thresholds stopping us from making it to the very bottom and from going through the connection from the upper pasture to the house pasture.  Still, it's a big pasture, and where we did go, he went with me confidently.

Now just to see if I can keep up the relaxed, niceness of the sessions we've been having...