Into the woods, again...

On Tuesday I took Tarzan (our dog) to the barn with me. Beings how he is not the sharpest tool in the shed I decided just to hang out near the little barn where Duck lives. This is also near the hayfield. So we were playing in the hayfield with Tarzan tagging along. We did some more mini circles, bigger circles and now I have a new problem. She always thinks I am sending her on the circle so her confidence in just backing up is not there! So we played with that awhile! Then we went towards the woods with me driving in Zone 3. Duck has become much more confident around the property. I decided to see if she would go back into the "dark and scary" woods again. If you read some of my previous posts we have played towards going in there before. Well she didn't seem very bothered by it this time and was quite confident so we headed into the woods driving (as much as possible on a narrow trail with lots of trees) from zone 3. Then we got to a little ditch and I decided to send her across it. It is more like a ditch with a little water in it and has kind of short but steep sides. Got her going pretty well doing that and it crossed my mind it would be really easy to jump up on her while she was in that ditch! So I got her standing confidently in the ditch and then jumped on! We were headed out of the woods anyway and she did really great! She didn't seem spooked at all and it was a drastic change from the last time we were in the woods! We moseyed our way through the hayfield, bareback with the halter and one rein all the way back to the barn! Very fun! And either the exercises we did building her confidence near that area have paid off or the fun trail rides have. Or maybe a combination of the two. I am just happy that she was more confident about it. We were alone (minus the dog) and it was a huge accomplishment for us!