These photos were taken June 28th and I am writing this entry on September 23rd. Over the past two weeks, Violet and I have done a lot of growing as a team. I had a private lesson two weeks ago and I lost my temper. I wasn't horrible, but I used the crop to spank her forward once and I was rough and intolerant with my hands -- rotten. So, she tossed her head and got stiff. So, then I just felt pretty badly all week and worked on being soft. And things were getting better because Violet is a forgiving girl who can blow things off and is happy to accept apologies. But here's the cool thing. On the Saturday following our Tuesday disagreement, Stacey gave me great great advice during our lesson about how to help her loosen up at the start and how to be so sweet and soft but feeling with my hands while driving with my legs. And since then, Violet gets that I'm trying to be good to her, so we work together now. We have really moved forward on softness!