They only surfaced when I asked for an extreme turn into her as I was leading. It could of course be that she has not learnt to move the front feet sideways fast enough yet to get out of the way, and so lifts them both of the ground in frustration. The face expression would suggest that this is the case. I need to teach her to turn with her weight on the hind quarters to make this easier for her to organise her feet. There is an exercise that Russel taught that should help with this.
Step one is driving from zone 3.
Step two, turn towards her so that I am facing her hind quarters and ask for a hind quarter yield. When she yields she is now facing me and backwards to the direction of the original driving game.
Step three, get her to backup smartly ( a challenge with Filly). This gets her weight over her hind legs.
Step four. Fore quarter drive whilst walking on the original line so that she has to pivot about her hind legs and is neatly now walking in the original direction on the other side of me.
Believe me it is difficult to describe, but harder to execute. As Russel said it is a thing of beauty when done well. For us it is still rather ugly, but fun.
I also spent a considerable time doing gentle games while she was wearing her bridle. We have just introduced her to this, but at the suggestion of a lady at the yard smeared a very small amount of mint toothpaste on the bit ( I checked with a vet first and a very small amount is fine ). She loves this. In fact when I came to take it off she was reluctant to let it out of her mouth. This was the longest that she has had a bit in her mouth so I was very pleased with the acceptance.
More time was spent with Billy in the field. He is really a very sensitive horse. Sideways was a bit better, but as Ritchie observed he wants to go sideways but can't yet work out how to move his feet to make it happen.
Ritchie played with him for a while. She is very experienced with Parelli, but was a bit taken aback by his sensitivity. Comments like "I didn't ask for that" floated across the field. I had to point out that actually she had but the aid was sooo subtle she didn't even know she had given it.
I think this subtlety has got him into trouble in the past. People have inadvertently asked him to do something and then got annoyed with him when he did. He is going to take a lot of patience to back, but I can't wait for the challenge.
At one point he stared into a neighbouring field. I have long since learnt to follow the gaze of a horse and was rewarded today with the sight of two young foxes playing. What a privilege which I would have missed but for Billy
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