More Work

I want to thank everyone who gave me links and advice on how to proceed with Gidget. I went over alone tonight (Jenn's still not feeling or moving that great) and put her in the round pen. She does listen to my commands, stopping at "whoa" and turning in to me, and keeping an ear on me when moving. It's just the approaching that's giving us trouble. I did pick up a bamboo pole (actually it's a piece of pvc, but it works) and after our round pen work, I put her back in her stall and worked on touching her with the pole. She did accept scratches on her shoulder without striking out, so I quit with that. We didn't work a long time tonight, but I feel better about it. Maybe she just has a small tolerance level and once that's reached she explodes. So we'll just work up to it, and I've decided that if all I'll be able to do at the competition is lead her in the arena, so be it.