Day 2

I set the pylon in the middle of the arena. We would ride and when she seemed to stall out, I'd target her on the pylon. Then occasionally I'd target her on a fence post. We rode for about 20 minutes, occasionally completing a lap in the arena without stopping and with Patience never getting upset.

Afterwards I rode for about 5 minutes outside the arena. Once Patience got "stuck" (I think the grass was a little distracting) and Sharon produced a target which got Patience focused and us moving again.

Day 3

We rode primarily outside the arena, targeting trees and fence posts when she would lose energy. Total time about 20 minutes.

At the Clicker Clinic we ended the day working out on the cutting flag. While most horses are pretty much afraid of the flag the first time they see it, Patience and the other clicker trained horses came right up and touched it, then stayed right on it as it moved. (This was also Patience' first time in this indoor arena and the first time being ridden at night.)

Day 4

My objective was to ride a mile without stopping. (One lap around the stable is a ¼ mile.) I had to target her on two trees to get her moving and after that, she walked without stopping. At the half mile point, Sharon needed some help with a horse with an eye injury, so I dismounted for a couple of minutes to help her, she put a saddle on Prints and we completed the second half mile without stopping.

After that we went out and rode in the horse course. Patience wasn't comfortable around other horses and riders (probably because the wranglers often moved the horses in the corrals from horseback.) Sharon set up some moving targets while on Prints which began to reduce some of Patience's anxiety.

Day 5

I rode to the back gate and went out onto Poe Lane. We rode up and down the lane a couple of times. The thoroughbreds across the lane were turned out in an area adjacent to the lane and were totally silly, tails up, snorting and blowing and kicking up lots of dust. Patience watched them curiously while we walked by but never got high.

Day 6

Cindy came by and we decided to take Patience and Prints out onto the lane. My objective was to head over to the Love's place and ride in their indoor arena, but we'd see how the "Mighty Miss P." would handle the situation as we went along. We picked an interval to ride down the highway where there were no cars approaching and I jogged her down the road to the Love's gate. The only time she had a problem was when I asked her to leave the pavement. She wasn't sure how to step over the "fog line" painted on the edge of the roadway. With a pickup truck waiting patiently for us to get off the road, I finally tapped her on the butt with my progress string and she crossed over the line and walked up to the gate.

Once inside the Love's gate we went up their quarter mile dirt road, passing cows, meeting up with a loose horse and eventually arriving at the covered arena. I opened the sliding door to the arena and Patience peered into the shadows and was amazed to see people! ... and horses!!! All on the other side of this big metal wall. We walked inside and Holly Love invited us to ride in the arena.

We walked, jogged and trotted in the arena, then Holly started riding a pretty good sized QH/TB gelding through some exercise drills. At first the "Mighty Miss P." wanted to keep an eye on this horse, especially when he trotted and cantered around us. I just legged her for a spin and we circled around like a Rain Bird sprinkler, tap of my leg, a step around by Miss P. ... Tap - Tap - Tap -. Since she naturally wanted to keep her head facing the moving gelding, we started getting pretty handy.

Eventually she decided that this spinning business was work and perhaps it wasn't so important for her to keep an eye on the moving horse, so I let her rest. At that point my pager went off, I dallied the reins onto the saddle, asked Cindy to get after Patience if she decided to roll with the saddle on, and went to use the phone. 5 minutes later Mighty Miss P. was still standing quietly where I left her. We thanked Holly for the use of her arena and headed on home.

After I had put her up, we had to go into town for some supplies for the July 10th clicker clinic and when we got back, we found the Mighty Miss P. laying down in the sun sound asleep. I guess she'd had a pretty busy day!

(We were eager to see how she handled the cutting flag that Saturday night after the clinic... and she did a fantastic job!)

Patience is now a handicapped riding program horse. In her first year in the program she was used for vaulting demonstrations at the California State Fair.