Traffic School 1

I went to longe Tesla in the big arena, and there were three gals whizzing around in there: 

Perfect Time for Traffic School!

First, I made Tess stand quietly near the center by the mounting block (while two gals finished the jumping bit of their lesson). Tesla's giant ears were full on radar mode going every which way lol, but after about 10-15 minutes she settled, even with horses cantering up behind and around her. The jump portion of the lesson was winding down so we went to longe in the corner. She balked a bit when the first horse came trotting towards us, so I put on some pressure and sent her forward into the trot several times. I think she thought the lesson was "horse coming, hit the gas" - but she was connecting "No Stop, Must Keep Moving" and we can work from there.

She got a ton of praise (& peanuts!) for correct answers (or even attempts). She was good even when a rider went to pull her jacket off a jump standard, pulled the whole thing down, and spooked every horse in the ring. (Tesla did a slo-mo delayed double take LOL) and then we practiced some in-hand work and she was really tuned in.  <3

I was talking with a friend about it: "oh, so you've just finally decided to address it?" was the comment. Nope - behind the scenes it has taken me a good year of work and patience to earn this level of trust and respect, and get us to the place where I can set her up for success. I can see the training holes are filling in (seriously this mare had like 4 months tops of professional training in her whole life at a quiet little cowboy barn in the middle of nowhere lol) The light is turning green, and we are ready to rev the engine a bit :D