Filly getting better. Billy distracted

Great news about Filly. The farrier was back yesterday and thought the improvement was very very good. In fact he put the shoe back on, although it is still well covered up with padding and duct tape to protect it. As a result I was able to take her for a short walk, at least 50 yards, outside ! And let her graze for a while. It was a bit wet and the last thing I wanted to do was getting the dressing damp, so we grazed for only about 5 minutes, but it was a start. On the way back to the box a quick trip to the indoor school alowed for a nice roll. Whilst there I did a little stick to me game with particular emphasis on turning into her to get fore quarter yields. She had been getting kind of disrespectful in the box, probably out of pure boredom. Now I know it is her space, but I respect guests (well most of them) in my house and expect her to do the same in hers. Doing forequarter yields means that she is having to move out off and respect my space so I hope this will help in the overall respect issue.
I also took the time to do some more touching all over training. The main focus at the moment is control of the tail. I want to be able to move the tail to wherever I want it to be with NO resistance from her. This will be particularly valuable if the vet ever needs to inspect her hind end. I've trained the feet for the farrier, now it's time to train the rest for the vet. When the vet is called out in an emergency is not really the time to start this training afterall !! The horse is sick and stressed out already in this case so why add trauma when a few minutes each day can avoid the proiblem ?
We then got Billy in the indoor school for a short session. More desensitising training followed, but with the added distraction of another horse being lunged next to us. There was little actual progress but I was pleased that we managed to achieve as much as yesterday even with the other horse around. I was really concentrating on keeping him focussed on me rather than the pretty mare at the other end, which was also a valuable task.
In my view it is always important to adapt to the situation at hand. I went in with a certain lesson plan, but had to adapt my expectations in light of the distraction. It would have been easy to get frustrated in these circumstances but I turned it to my advantage. As a result I am sure that the next session will show more improvement than I would normally expect.
One thing James (see previous post) fines people for is a negative comment. £1 is the going rate. In this situation thinking of this really helped stay motivated and centered.
Don't forget one of Pats sayings "Expect a lot, Accept a little, Reward often". Now I understand this a little better.