Pillars with distractions

 I didn't get a chance to work Lyric yesterday because I took too long at Ashland and then Mike told me that we were invited to his boss's for dinner so I had just enough time to shower. I didn't even feed them last night! Whoops! Oh well. They've got plenty of grass.

So today I spent the morning bush hogging and then when I finished I found Lyric and tried to do some pillar work. Unfortunately Mike picked that time to let the dogs out in the dogpen pasture so she was super distracted. Which meant... no luck with getting pillar 1. And I could barely get her to soften to the connection. So, I tried with treats, which sort of worked. I'm trying hard to do positive reinforcement but my patience is not making it easy. 

So then I decided... okay, let's go try it on the trailer. We need to practice trailer loading and... there's a nice ramp for a psoas stretch and maybe if she coudn't see the dogs.... ha!! Yeah. That plan backfired a little. She couldn't see the dogs, but she also couldn't see the horses and she was out of the "comfort zones". So... she got super antsy. BUT... she put her front feet on the trailer and got treats. Then she angry pawed the snot out of it a few times. But when she settled she got treats. I never got more than a few seconds of pillar 1 and she probably wasn't truly in pillar 1 because she was still on edge. But, we got some front feet on and rewarded, so... back to the round pen we went. Baby steps. I'm okay with baby steps. 

Back in the round pen she relaxed more and we were able to do pillar 1 walks and even pillar 2 some and a tiny bit of pillar 3. Okay, well, better than nothing. :) She still has such a long way to go! But... I do think we're making progress. I hope!!