into the stall

Today was Maddie's first trip out of the round pen.  I felt she was becoming a little too comfortable in the round pen 24/7 and starting to use her confidence against me.  So I started with a good round pen session that ended with a lot of face rubbing.  The only part that is still electric is right under her chin, interestingly.  She struck out a few times and got me once in the forearm.  But no harm done.  Brian also rubbed her in the face but experienced the same ambivalence.  This is great progress, though.

Brian brought some extra panels to keep her from running into the junk piles if things got ugly and I led her out of the round pen once they were set up.  She stuck right at the gate of the round pen and did not want to leave, which I thought was interesting.  I led her in and out about 4 times and then went to work her in the larger arena.  First I led her around a couple of times and then tried some sending and lunging.  She did not send well and kept pulling towards the round pen and Panda.  The lunging was also pretty ugly.  I want to repeat this again tomorrow morning.

Next Brian pulled Panda out of the small pen and I led Maddie in and out of this a few times.  She did well and I felt safe in the smaller area.  Then Brian led Panda down the barn aisle and I led her into a box stall.  She took her time but went into the stall OK and ate a bit of grain.  I repeated 3-4 times and then we took her back to the arena.  To change things up we put Maddie in the small pen and Panda in the round pen.  Wow!