#8

July 21

I did some more groundwork today and Missy is getting so much better at the lope. We are working more on her transitions and she's not rushing anything anymore, she is pretty calm and is waiting for me to ask her before she does it. We are getting so much better at ground driving and going over the obstacles too. She gets excited now whenever we go out of the round pen into the arena to do the obstacles. I think the poles are her favorite, but she is definitely getting her confidence in going over the board. Today was Missy and my first actual solo play day! At the end of our session, I was trying to think of something else we could do. I was crouching down and resting a bit when Missy started to get curious and slowly walk over to me (she was about one and a half horse-lengths away). When she finally got close enough to sniff my hand, I scratched her forehead and she moved in even closer to me. She also pushed her head against me and we sat that way for quite a while. This was a big leap in our bond considering that up until now Missy was always kind of wary of me because I was new. She allowed me to be around her brushing her and cleaning out her hooves, but she wasn't exactly comfortable with me. I had decided that we should end our day then and I was absolutely overjoyed at our progress.