December has arrived with mud and slippery unridable arena in tow. The indoor arena at Colfax fairground we utilized last winter will not be available until at the earliest in January, so we are limited to what we can do on the driveway around the house or on a frozen arena. Fortunately the last week has been more frozen than muddy, so today I took Annie up to the fenced off arena for some liberty work.

 

So far our liberty works reasonably well when we are walking/running in a straight pattern. But the challenge is to get Annie to circle me. For the first sessions she did not understand at all, but just took off in whatever direction. So then we worked with one hand ready to grasp the halter up by her head for a few times. That worked ok, but I dont think she likes having the hand and the whip so close. So today we changed strategy and showed with body language that she is supposed to turn. That worked better! 

 

She is finally starting to get the concept to stay with me and to keep the focus on me during the work. My instructor who I sent the video to commented that this is the start of our first liberty mule. I hope!