Panda redeems herself!

Very productive session today.  I caught her in the small pen no problem and changed her lead rope.  (I put a 24" lead on her overnight.  I really want her to stop stepping on her head.)  Panda watched from the tie-up on one side of the arena.

In the round pen I worked on lunging for respect (lunging with lots of quick turns/rollbacks without coming through the center) and sending.  Sending is starting to look very pretty and soft, with a loop in the lead the entire time.  I also led her in and out of the gate a bunch of times.  A lot of the session was spent doing rope work.  She is getting better about her head and chin now, so I can keep her head bent while I do desensitizing work.  Right side better for everything today, including disengaging the hindquarters.  From the near side I did the turn and go exercise a few times.  She took it hard the first couple of times, but followed her nose around her hindquarters every time.  I am flipping the rope well around her barrel now but have not grabbed it to pull it up yet.

I repeated these exercises in the larger arena, which thanks to Brian now has stock panels all around.  She did much better today.  We went back to the round pen and I climbed on the fence and did some sending.  Couldn't get her to come real close but I could rub her with the stick.

I finished by saddling up Panda and ponying Maddie for the first time.  What a blast!  Panda was perfect perfect perfect.  I rode Panda one handed the whole time and could back and sidepass and spin to keep cutting off Maddie.  I had to use the stick to catch Maddie's lead line, but once I had it I could lead her all around and also push her away by sidepassing Panda into her forequarters.  I was able to lean over Maddie and give her good rubs on both sides.  She did not seem nervous or aggressive, but I did not completely understand her motives when Maddie went to sniff on Panda.  So I kept things moving and did not let her have time to think much.  What a fabulous fun session.  Now two horses that I have trained (Star, whom I started a month ago, and Panda) have been instrumental in the training of Maddie!