I'm the leader of the pack !!

Well for today anyway.
We started as usual with Billy meandering over to me in the field, followed by the filly (not the Filly) and mare. They all gathered round me to say hi. Having haltered Billy I lead him away to an area of short grass where my legs get less wet.
Started with lots of friendly game again, and he was now quite confident with me waving the stick around whilst facing him. I started by walking slowly backwards, so that he could follow, a classic retreat in the "advance and retreat" method of desensitisation. Then stood still and he carried on walking confidently to me, all the time with the stick/string still waving about (the advance phase as he was getting closer to the threat). It helped that there were lots of flies bothering him and so I could use the savvy string as my "tail" and whisk them off him.
We then did all the usual favourites, porcupine (better), driving (front quarter very good, hind not too bad), and circling.
Circling went much better today, but having trouble using the hind quarter driving yield to get him to stop, turn and face. He really takes offense to any action with the stick when my energy is up and just goes faster. By drawing the circle in and applying a little porcupine pressure on the halter we did get some decent stops in the end, but more work needed.
During this period is when I think I moved up a step in the herd hierarchy. The dominant mare wandered over and started to drive Billy around. I gave my sternest frown, leaned forwards and advanced on her. When she didn't yield a quick underhand flick with the stick and string made her move away, not in a spooky way but out of our space. Interestingly Billy watched this encounter intently and did a lot of licking and chewing afterwards. I thought I then detected a little more respect from him.
We then worked on a new exercise called "rope around", where I pass the rope round the far side of Billy's body, round the hind legs and back to my hand whilst standing near his head. A gentle pull on the rope applies a porcupine (ie steady) pressure to the halter asking him to yield his head away from me and look at his opposite flank. This is then followed by gently walking backwards so that he performs a gentle pirouette and finishes up facing me at the far end of the 22foot rope. It is very important to step backwards as he turns or I will be squarely in range in the kick zone !! Surprisingly he stood very calmly as I draped the rope around his body and performed a beautiful neck yield at the slightest pressure. We paused at this point and then I stepped gently backwards and he performed a very calm pirouette and stood facing me. This is an impressive move psychologically as of course he can only see me out of one eye I then pass through his blind spot as he turns away from me and then appear in the other eye. Sounds simple to us but then we basically only have binocular vision, whereas most of the horses visual field is monocular with a bit of binocular in front. The flicking of an object from one eye to the other can be unsettling for some horses, and objects that are fine when viewed with one eye can seem like a threat when viewed with the other. To simulate this effect for youself I suggest large quantities of beer. It's always worked for me in the past !!
After a few of these it was time to stop, so after a bit more friendly game I removed the halter, but stayed with him a while. I coiled the rope and started to walk away. In the past he has always left me at this point to rejoin the herd. Today however he calmly followed me right on my shoulder all the way to the gate AWAY from his herd. What a feeling that was. In fact the other two then raced over to follow us and even then he stayed on my shoulder.
On leaving the field I watched what would happen next. The mare was clearly not happy with this turn of events and proceeded to reassert her dominance over him. But he still came back to the gate to see me. It is important to note that to date I have never fed him any tidbits so this was not cupboard love.