Still Attempting to Solve the Puzzle...

I didn't write yesterday because I was not very happy with our session. I was hoping to ride, but I wasn't in a very positive mood and then when I started warming Lady up, she was a little stiff and more than a little grumpy, so no ride. Instead, we did lots of circles on the 45-foot line, getting her stretched out and feeling better. I'm trying to work on focusing my good emotions on my horse instead of taking out my frustrations out on her and so far.... it hasn't worked too well. What doesn't help is that although I have more confidence about riding than I had for a while, I still don't have very much. The last few rides have been pretty difficult too, which hasn't helped me feel too great about trying again.

Lady modeling her latest halter - Arabian style and hunter green.  :)

I'm working on teaching Lady about relaxation (acceptance and calmness) so today I took her out and tied her up for a while. I wanted to see what she would do and how long it would take her to relax and just stand still. It took a while, and I think I'm going to do that regularly for a few weeks. <makes note> I've never made a fuss about tying and almost never leave her tied up for any length of time because she is super good at not wandering off and even when she is tied up its only for 2-5 minutes while I run to the house or the tack room to get something. So, for the first while, she was fidgeting and watching my every move because she expected me to come back to her pretty quickly. I wasn't planning on it, of course, and she got rather bored and wanted to eat grass, but I had made sure that she couldn't reach it. I was looking for her to relax, drop her head some, and, for the most part, stand still and quietly. I left her there for about an hour and a half. Eventually, she got the right idea, but she didn't like it very much, so I waited until she was doing the right thing and then brought her a handful of feed and untied her. And that was all I ended up doing. The wind decided to pick up quite strong in the afternoon and I prefer not to ride in strong wind as it throws my balance off.
I'm having to work out where to do my sessions with Lady, now that half the property has been plowed up and isn't really available for working on. So.... ummm.... yeah, that problem has yet to be solved.  O.o

The view between a horse's ears makes everything alright.  <3