I'm back

Well my hiatus is over. I am back giving lessons and working with Camina. I decided to take a little bit different track with her today. I know that she is really reluctant to trust me totally, ie. she is a bit recalcitrant. Hence, my plan today was to work her on the ground, back to the basics with the intensity raised a notch. I am simply not going to allow for her not to pay attention to me or respond quickly to my cues. She knows what I want but wants to do it when she is good and ready. So, today she got schooled. I lunged her some to warm her up, then went right into disengagements, moving the shoulders, backing up. All of this was with life in her feet, meaning I did not permit her to be sluggish or slow about it. It had to be with some pep in her step. We even went sideways down the wall all the way around the arena some of it at a jog. We did that in both directions with her head to the wall and then again with her butt to the wall. It was a really fast paced 10 minutes. Then I put the long line on her with the bridle and commenced to lunge her on the circle. I moved her up to a trot and kept her there until I could see some signs of relaxing: licking and chewing, lowering her head, her head carriage to the inside, ear cocked to the inside and so on. Then I started to ask for transitions to a canter. She bucked several times but finally settled down. I wanted to have her transitions be smooth from trot to canter and back to trot, then to a walk and so on. We kept this up for a good 20 minutes or so. Then did the same thing going in the other direction. So for about 40 minutes she did not stop at all. I kept her feet moving and switching gaits. Then I took the long line off and again went back to more in hand work and had her stopping and backing with pep, and half passing down the wall and then walking off. I wanted her to stay at my pace so had to put some life in her feet while I was leading her around. But she finally got the hint and would stay with me. My overall estimation of her and of this days lesson is that she is a long way from completely giving me her heart and trusting me. She is holding back and it might take a lot longer session to cross that threshold. So we will see.