Mirroring while following the rail

Today we played with some of the same stuff as yesterday. Trying to work with sideways towards the fence for mounting. This didn't seem to go as well today as yesterday. Not sure why. I will try again next time. Also did the figure eight around the barrels online. Did about 6 or more times. On the 6th one Duck did it herself with not as much as a crabby look on her face so I stopped. We then reviewed lead by the mane in the big arena. She didn't want to slow down once I got her moving! By the end I did get a couple steps of backup and her to lead forward one time without having to use the stick for support so I quit there. 

Then I rode bareback with just the savvy string. I decided to try mirroring while doing a follow the rail around the arena at the walk. I think we did this about 20 times! I don't know but it was forever long! She was very unconfident to begin with, always looking outside the arena, even bending her whole body away from it. Also in the far corner she was very high headed and even a bit spooky. I decided just to mirror this as well. It worked! After all those laps around (minus the couple times she totally turned around) she really started getting more relaxed. Even in the far corner to the point that she didn't hardly look out of the arena down there. I know that I tend to be either not enough or too much energy while playing with Duck in general. Today I while mirroring I focused on being aware of how much energy I was using to match hers. I found that most of the time when she was bringing her energy up I still wasn't up enough to match her. So I played with this and then got it as equal as possible. 

It was funny at the end of the session Duck offered me a sideways to the fence to unlatch the gate! I obliged and unlocked it from on top of her (a first) and we backed out of the arena and then grazed our way back to her pasture bareback with just the savvy string! It was pretty cool because I have only recently felt confident enough to ride her out and about alone and she was so different this time, like the exercise really made her more confident. 

Fun stuff!