Brushed Mikey off first.  Then worked Mikey with tricks/clicks/treats.  I am now adding in “strings” of commands before he gets a treat. So he has to (for example) touch his nose to a target (in this case, a small cone I have on the ground) and then he has to lift a leg that I indicate to him.  Or he has to walk towards me (with my usual signal of a kiss sound plus leaning over a bit and stroking an imaginary rope towards my solar plexus)…and then I stand up and do my fingers like a six-shooter and say “back” and he has to back…then click and treat.  Made him move all four quarters (yield) and also he had to target a. mini obstacle course (touch his nose to a sequence of laid out cones)…got a click and treat…and I also checked in on him standing still at “whoa” while I walked a full circle around him.  He seemed pleased to see me and pleased he has a growing arsenal of new tricks.  Currently he gets confused if I tap him lightly on the flat side of. his haunch (asking him to yield his haunches just a step or two…) but he sometimes reads it as “lift up your hind leg” and he lifts it up mightly.  My cue for that normally is a light touch with the whip tip on the front of the cannon bone of whatever leg I’m wanting him to lift up…I need to separate out these two cues and get some clarity…but for. now super happy he is responding so well and eagerly.

Plato: brushed him off real good; walked him 13 min. At first he did. not want to be caught.  I asked him to step over with each of his hind legs 2x; then had him move laterally with his front end 1x just for suppling.  I will add on a rep or two of these over the coming weeks each time I go out. After our exercise session I left him grazing in a shady spot.  I also cut out some hay twine rope that was crusted, nested up against his back fence rail as I did not want him to get his foot caught in it.  Looks like it blew from the huge acreage that is up against his fence line.

Duchess:  Lunged her 15 min. Picked up all four feet (as if I was gonna clean them; trim them) And pounded on them with my bare hands and cooed good girl and gently allowed each foot to return to the ground.  In the lungeing: lots of transitions; lots of spiral in and out; only cantered her on her right lead and made her do in all 3 circles (large circles) in that direction. It was hot.  Did not want to get her too overheated.  Lots of trot though and she’s stretching so nicely at the trot now in both directions.

Lily: Since you said you had ridden her yesterday I figured I would owrk on her trust issues.  I used the techniques I saw in the trust-technique.com mini free course…basically you empty your own mind of any busy-ness and sort of enter a meditative state.  Lily actually came right at me (!) and then I stood still and she sniffed me all over!  I then sat down on the ground and moved very slowly. She never left my periphery and nor did she graze either.  She kept standing right there, watching me the whole time. Sunni came up but I gently brushed her away.  Duchess must of have picked up on the “calm” vibe and started rolling (in the course he has these horses sort of hypnotized by his “being present” state and they end up surrounding him and laying down(!).  I then stayed near Lily and asked her permission to gently stroke the side of her neck then soon the side of her shoulder and step back. Used the back of my hand.  She did not flinch nor turn away (she has turned away and LEFT in times past.  Finally she started grazing and wandered off.  I then walked tangentially to her and stood a bit off and tried just being present again (no language, or thoughts in my mind). She kept her eyes on me and then started grazing IN MY DIRECTION!!! Wow!  I thanked her for the trust she appeared to be putting in me and told her I would be back on Fri. to do some more of this type of stuff.  (note: I think I told you that on Sat. I lunged her slowly (walk, trot, halt) and she is so sensitive that all I have to do is lift the lunge line 2-3 inches and very softly say “whoa” and she stops immediately!—so sensitive. took me about 3 sessions to get her to stop this quietly…but working on the trust stuff is something entirely different.)