Sitting on Filly

Yesterday was a good day.
Played with Filly first, some time before she was fed. She started in a bit of a RB mood, finding the end of the school with open slats to the outside particularly frightening. I largely cured this by making it the place of rest during the playing. We did lots of travelling circles at canter and just "happened" to stop and rest at the spooky spot each time. Soon this became her preferred end and she became nicely LB there.
Having sorted this out I moved onto the preparation for riding routine again. I'll write it out one more time

1) Have the horse catch you
2) Halter with savvy
3) Touch all over ( I groom her)
4) Place the feet (pick them out at the same time)
5) Get a good stand still
6) Saddle with savvy (except I'm riding bareback !)
7) Move her around to ensure that the girth/cinch isn't worrying her
8) Do several direct rein/ indirect rein yields on a circle to ensure that I have the power to stop and direct her
9) Couple of rope arounds to get good lateral flexion of the neck
10) Mount her.

This sounds like a lot of steps just to get on your horse, but it ensures that she is in the right frame of mind before I get on, and I have a semblance of control. I intended to wait until Ritchie was in the school prior to getting on, but as I stood on the mounting block she nicely positioned herself and it seemed rude not to get on at that point. Prior to mounting I gently rock her so that she puts her feet in a stable position making her less likely to move off as soon as I get on. Now keep in mind this is bareback so I have to sort of vault on which is kind of a sudden movement. During the mounting she barely moved, She seemed to stay completely LB and relaxed. Her head did come round to see if she could bite my toes of course, such a conveniently placed target must be irresistible to her ! Swinging my leg gently dissuaded her. We then just sat there and relaxed. The look of surprise on Rithcies' face as she came to the gate was great. I was also pleased that the sudden appearance of another person did not cause her to move at all. After a minute or two of giving her withers a nice scratch I got off to let her rest and think about things.
Mounting for a second time she did move a few paces, but she reacted well to a quick lateral flexion and took advantage of her head being near my toes to have another quick nibble. Once she was stopped and relaxed I got off again.
On the third ride I decided to see what her reaction would be to asking her to do something. The obvious was a hind quarter yield. Applying gentle pressure on the lead rope to get lateral flexion, twisting my body so that I was looking down at her hind quarters and then swapping hands on the rope so that I could use my hand to gently tap her hind quarters she took a gentle step sideways, at which point I relaxed and petted her. Throwing the lead rope around her nose the procedure was repeated on the other side, again with complete success.
This was an important milestone. I have just sat on her in the past, but upping the pressure to asking her to move whilst mounted and still having a very calm Filly was a big step.
Ritchie commented that she looked very calm and even a bit "proud" if horse can have such an emotion. I have also noted a huge change in her attitude towards me on the ground. No attempts at biting at all. Her new habit is to put one nostril right next to my mouth and breath with me. I hope this is a good sign !!