Less is more

Odd title but stay with me in this one.
It snowed here overnight so not a good day to put Filly out for the first time. I resolved to make up for this by playing with her twice.
The morning session was very pleasant with lots of the games she already knows to give her confidence in consistency and being out of her box. There were a few exuberant moments, but to be honest they were a pleasure to watch. It's so nice to see her having fun again.
Again I did lots of quick switching on the games to keep her occupied and interested. This seemed to work very well and we had a very rewarding morning session.
This evening I was at the yard again to play with both horses. Filly first.
She is still pretty dominant so I had to get very firm at times to counter her energy. The phases of pressure are applicable to training, but if she comes at me with phase 3 teeth I am not going to mess about with a phase 1 finger wriggle !! I match her phase plus a bit to reassert my leadership. This works for maybe 5 minutes with Filly whilst she plots the next form of attack. The snag from her point of view is that I can see the cogs wiring in her brain and so usually I am ready for the next attempt. This takes a lot of concentration on my part in reading her expression so that I am aware as to when the next attempt is imminent. We have been through this in the past and come out the other side, but I guess all the box rest has put us back a while.
I am really concentrating on the work required for riding her now and as a result the general thrust of the lesson is centered around the formula for riding as presented by Pat Parelli and modified a bit by James. I start with requiring a good stand still whilst I touch her all over. Who wants to mount a horse who has a touch point that results in a buck ? To put purpose to the touching I use a grooming brush to clean her off a bit.
We then move onto "placing the feet". I ask for each hoof to be lifted giving a chance to pick it out, tap on it to simulate shoeing, massage the leg to make it all pleasurable etc. Then MOST IMPORTANT I place the foot where I want it and persist until she relaxes the hoof in the requested place. This takes a long time with Billy, but Filly knows the drill and lets the hoof be placed anywhere I want. I was amazed at James yard when a horse had a bucking fit and he could identify which leg had initiated the bucks and it corresponded to the hoof that one of his assistants had problems placing earlier.
I then moved onto fore quarter and hind quarter yields using direct and indirect reins ( more on these concepts in the future ). At the moment these cause problems, particularly the fore quarter yields (consistent with a LBE). As a result we are not really progressing much past this stage, but there are many ways to do the required yields so it is not exactly boring. At the moment she does the yields but she either has a really snotty look on her face, or swishes her tail or tries to bite. None of these are what one would look for in a horse you were about to mount !! On a plus side the manners in the box are rapidly improving as a result of the resumption of the play sessions. Even the girls at the yard have commented on this.
After this session I spent a long time in the stable just doing undemanding but useful exercises such as grooming her tail. I have really taken onboard the concept that EVERY interaction with the horse is important, not just those in the training environment. In this case I was doing more "touching all over" and by raising the tail preparing her for future vet exams.
I then went to get Billy out of his enclosure to give him a play session. On entering the pen he was lying down and remained so as I approached. Bare in mind that he is an unbacked 3 year old highly bred thoroughbred and he stayed down. I approached slowly and knelt next to his head and gently stroked his face and neck. I then made a conscious effort to synchronise my breathing to his. After a few minutes his head lowered until his nose was on the ground and he briefly went to sleep (the snoring gave it away). What amazing trust, lying down with a predator and falling asleep. We stayed like this for 20 minutes or more with gentle stroking, him nuzzling my legs from time to time until I heard the call of the pub. I slowly left the pen, and eventually the yard, he was still lying down. The decision not to work him was a difficult one but I felt that the gain in rapport was way more important than more training in the school and wanted to leave I really nice impression on him for him to consider overnight. Hence the title !!