ground work

I had a few minutes this evening. I have been clearing the area behind my house and now have a large open area. I burned a brush pile and decided to get Raven and work on Lunging stage 3 and backing angles among other things. So I brought her back and worked alot on lunging stage 3 on long line. It went well except that she didn't want to stay in a lope for me. She doing real well though, starting off fast and staying in gait until I ask for something different. She doesn't come up to me fast like I want, but I think that is because I haven't kept her going long enough and taught her how good it is to hurry up and get next to me when I give her the chance. This is the way it should be with me and the Lord. When I am wore out with life's issues I should crave getting close to Him in prayer and reading of the Word to be refreshed and get a breather. That is what I am giving the horse at those times. She is making fast improvements though. I also worked on her backup and Oh my, is that ever getting good in terms of hustling her feet. We even have room now to back 30 to 40 feet and then make a 90 degree turn.  I did some side passing and side passing toward me. Another obstacle was that my dog was out there with us trying to help out. He was a good distraction, but she kept most of her attention on me. I had to tell him several times to get away from her hind feet. I don't want him to get kicked, but he just might have to to learn his lesson. When it happens hopefully, it won't hurt him too much. I also did some driving on the long line and leg yields. It was quite a workout for her and was very profitable I think. I am going to enjoy having a larger area to work with the horses in. No I can really get some things done with them. I just have to get the area graded better and get the little shin killer stumps out of the way. Hopefully, I will get another chance tomorrow. We'll see.