Liberty And Pedestal

I played for an hour with Milva today.
As Linda recommends I keep the liberty sessions short and intressting. We did some stick to me in walk and trott. Backing up from z5 - which still amazes me. Weave patterns and figure 8´s!!
The first try of figure 8´s didn´t go to well. Milva got really frustrated cause my signals weren´t clear. She stopped in the middle of the two cones and stomped with her frontfoot in the floor with her ears back. I told her - I get it, I get it.
It´s a good thing she is letting me know when I´m not clear with my bodylanguage.
So we did some more stick to me and when we returned to the figure 8´s I slowed down and was very clear with my bodylanguage and voila - it worked!
Our first figure 8 at liberty!!!!!!
After liberty I did some mounting preperation. I was standing on my little red chair in z3 and gave her alots of scratches. In the beginning she still wanted to go away from me but I backed her up, brought her to me sidewards, moved her legs one step by step. Whatever it took to get her close to me again and as soon as she was in the right place I gave her lots of scratches and told her what a good girl she was.
It took a little while for her to relax but after a while she dropped her head and enjoyed it. I really wonder where that threshold came from?? It was never a problem to mount her. She was always standing still.
Well, maybe I do know where it comes from. When Anna helped me with her she made her walk pretty fast - fast for a lbi. Probably she got pushed over her thresholds alots of times in that period and now the result is her not standing still anymore cause she is worried about getting pushed over again.
Hmmmm....how intressting...
Oh well, I will take the times it takes so it will take less time :)
By the end I could put my foot in the stirrup and she stood still. I didn´t go any farther though and quit our session there.
After our ridinghouse time we went for a short little while in the stable. Still not much difference there. But we will get there eventually.
Last but not least - Milva stood on the stone pedastal with her four feet today!!!!
Awesomeness!!! As I predicted it was pretty easy to get her on it. And according to her face she loved it to stand up there! Going down was a bit more difficult though. Because she had never done it before she almost stumbled with her right back leg. I guess she underestimated the height of the stone.
It didn´t stop her of wanting it to do it again though.
I just love my little pony!!