The last couple days, I've taken Aspen out to the small pasture and used it to "round pen" her. I was surprised at how much it seemed to help settle her. It reinforced to her that I control speed and direction while eliminating the tug-o-war with the lead rope. Aspen is learning to face up to me when I yield her hindquarters, but she didn't get that I wanted her to come to me when invited in--she just stayed out on the circle.
Today I added Piper to the round penning session, since Piper knows what is expected. Aspen watched Piper and seemed to do a better job of facing up. Also, while she didn't come all the way in like Piper does, she did start to take a couple steps toward me.
We didn't go for too long. The point of the round penning was not run endless circles to tire Aspen out; but to help reduce her anxiety and get her more relaxed and focused. In that it seemed successful.
I put the hobbles on Aspen for the first time yesterday. She was a little freaked out when she first realized she was "handcuffed", but she eventually started to relax. She tripped and fell twice (and gave herself a scraped knee) when she was first trying to get used to how to move with the hobbles on. It's not unusual for a horse to scuff themselves up when first introduced to hobbles. I consider the risk to be minor in comparison to the benefit of teaching the horse to not panic if their legs get tangled up (in a fence, for instance).
Here is the video. I had to split it in two cuz YouTube said it was too long to upload.
Part 1: