Mind over matter

Gingy and I had a really great play session last night, yet the whole time I knew something was missing.  Gingy wasn't in the mood to go to the pasture and I can understand that since we've been going out in the pasture every day for the last four days.  Also the fact that he put two and two together to realize what we might be doing in the pasture and then decided he didn't want that, showed me that so far he isn't very happy with our training sessions.  Oh well, that's just his feedback for the day and I just need to take the information and adjust a few things.  At the time I was too tired to worry about making any major adjustments.  I tried getting Gingy to better understand stick to me because he has always had trouble with that game, but by the end of our session I was beginning to see why.  I got frustrated with the stick to me after awhile so I went to working through his change of direction.  At first he was bracey and rigid, but by the time I brought him in his changes were soft, engaged, and he wasn't bracing.  Still I felt like even with all of those good things happening something was missing.  That missing piece of the puzzle came to me while I was sitting with Gingy in the pasture.  I had thought it apropriate that we go to the pasture specifically so he could graze as a change of pace.  While he was grazing I thought long and hard about all of the things we had just done.  I realized that even though Gingy had been very physically engaged during our session he had never let go of his mental brace.  Now my mission is to think of activities that will cause Gingy's mind to engage.  I have several ideas so I'll let you know how it goes after our session today.