Tiffany and I spent last Saturday morning in the round pen. The goal was to get her to "join up" with me-- basically recognize that I was in charge and the leader. To get a horse to join up, you basically drive them in circles (controlling their feet). Once the horse shows signs of submission such as lowering their head, chewing, licking their lips-- you allow the horse to stop and see if she comes to you and then follows you around.
One thing I underestimated in our previous sessions was how long it could take, and I also didn't realize she was suppose to follow wherever I went (my mentor was pretty consistent about reminding me of the signs). At any rate, it took at least 30 minutes of driving Tiffany around to get her to realize it was a good idea to follow. We took some breaks, and she slowly started to understand. The first couple times she came up to me after stopping she didn't follow, so off she went again. There were a few things that set us up for success. First, she was tired from being driven around the night before. Second, I didn't have a time constraint. No watch; we were up there as long as we needed to be.
It was a pretty cool feeling when we finally "joined up." Hopefully this will give us a solid basis for continued training.
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