Goal achieved!

I rode for TWO hours today, and even in an English saddle! Gunny was very good, toward the end of the lesson I was walking and trotting her, and she was staying in frame. I don't post in an English saddle, I use it more or less as a bareback pad. I'm working on my balance and seat for western.

I realized today that clucking/kissing for Gunny to go faster is what triggers the ear pinning. So, confrontation and deletion were done when she pinned her ears. I applied the head-down cue at a scale of 10 and held it until she dropped her head, then immediately tried again. I'm going to try to desensitize her to smooching, because that seems to cause the unwanted behavior. If I ask her gently, she usually goes into a faster gait without any question. She just raises her head. So we went around the arena at an extended trot, me continually kissing, and correcting her if the ears went back or the head went up. We both got a good workout, but I totally think that it was a great lesson. She's coming along nicely.

She's actually getting better at going around the arena to the right, which was her bad side. Now her left side is rusty! I've got to start working on the left side again, because she's getting better at her "bad" side now!

She was a little heavy on the bit when I first started riding her today, but a little bit of backing up and deletion was all she needed. I even saw her salivating on the new sweet iron full cheek bit. That's something I've never seen before with her! All good things.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I had a great ride. Wonderful day!

If the weather is good tomorrow, I'm going to ride again, hopefully for just as long if possible. I'm going to keep working on the head-down cue, working and tuning half halts and speed changes. She tends to hollow her back if I ask her to step out, so we've got to work on that. Her half halts are very rusty. I don't think she really knows what they mean yet -- slow your feet. I've got to work on being clear of what I want when I ask her to slow down to a slower pace.

She's still having issues with staying on the rail, but I also noticed that I was dropping my shoulder more to the left than I was the right. I tried to sit up correctly, and the English saddle is helping me with balance. It wasn't a 360º change or anything, but I did notice a difference with her veering off the rail less when I tried not to drop my shoulder. Something else to work on. :)

Little successes are very refreshing!