WOW!!!!

Today, Tari had an epiphany. The light bulb came on. It clicked. After 3 days of working on turning on her rear end, she finally told me she understood.

I started her work out normally. Walking around, then trotting some circles. We were trotting on a large circle in the center of the ring. At one point she started to tip her nose in like she does when she's about to just bring it right to my leg and roll her hip out. But, today, when I picked up my outside rein and gently pressed my outside leg in her side to keep her straight, she turned and trotted in a very small circle. Through the whole circle I felt her inside hind stepping forward. She never once tried to roll her belly in the smaller circle. So, when the circle was done, I let her come out of it and go back to trotting our big circle. After a few rounds, we changed direction. Now, this way she didn't try to stick her hip out, but I tried to do the same thing in this direction to see how she'd turn. I slightly picked up the outside rein and pressed my leg into her side and she moved into a nice small circle, reaching forward with her inside hind. YAY!!!!
That was our first accomplishment of the day.

Then, I decided to try to lope some spiral circles and see if she could hold it together for those. Usually, once the circle gets smaller, she either sticks her hip out, or breaks to a trot. I think she's just not strong enough yet in the rear end to hold it together. So, we've been doing lots of long trotting lately to try to strengthen her hind quarters so this exercise is possible for her.

So, I started loping in the same circle we were previously trotting. Center of the ring, and a big circle at first. We loped, 2 circles, and then I brought her in a bit. Then a bit more, until finally, we were about as small as I was comfortable asking her to go and I asked for her to turn around as if we were turning a barrel and she did it!!! So I let her slowly come out of loping the circle until we were back out to the big circle. The whole time she was loping today she felt so light on her front end. She's finally using that big butt for what it's meant to be used for!

Then, the real test. Would she do this, on the pattern.

I walked her around the pattern. Asked her to stop and back up. Really asked her to pick up her shoulders and come around. She did great. We did it at a trot. Stop, hesitate. Back up, walk around. Then, I asked her to lope the pattern. Very light in the front end again. We get to our pocket, I sit, say whoa, pick up my outside, press my leg into her right side, and she comes around! Oh. My. Gosh. I was so happy. She had perfect turns on her 2nd and 3rd barrel too. Great, great, patterns tonight. Of course, no one was there to see it.

But, later, I took a student on a trail ride, and just before we left, another boarder had come out, and I took her through the pattern again, and asked the boarder to video. She did OK, the two I got on video, but I'll make excuses for her. She had sat at the trailer for about 20 minutes. And I didn't walk or trot the pattern before I did it, I just put her to it. The first one was not as graceful, but still a very big improvement on what she did a week and a half ago when I took her to triplecreek. After the first video, I trotted her through and tuned a bit, then loped again and it was much better.

After today, I feel like she said, "Hey, mom, I get it now. Is this what you want me to do?" I just wish I would have figured it out a few months ago!