Testy Mare!

I've had my horse for 8 years now and that little snot still tries to test me! She is the dominant mare in her herd, so I see where it comes from. I turned her out in the arena with her buddy Addison (who is pregnant!). When i went to go get her to work with her, she decided she didn't quite want to be caught. She kept herding Addison away. She's been very protective of that pregnant mare lately (maybe baby's coming?). So I decide to do the same. I cut her from Addison and herded her into a corner. Took a little bit of direction changing to get it through her head that I'm boss and I'll be the one telling everyone who's going where! Well she finally got it and let me catch her. I've just started teaching her how to differentiate her front end movements from her back end movements. I saw this game on both Parelli's TV show and Chris Cox's TV show, so I thought I'd give it a try to improve her side passing. It's where you bring your horse up to the wall and tap her shoulder till she moves away. Then you tap the rear end to have that move away. Keep doing it until you both are in constant motion and they are side passing. Sounded easier than it really is! My mare is not really scared of anything and can be unresponsive to things most horses would quickly react to. I had to smack her pretty hard on both her shoulder and back end to get them to move sideways. I think I'm going to email one of them and ask about this. I don't want to hurt my mare. She'll just stand there and take it and I felt like I was abusing her or something. But she finally caught on and this is the second day I've done this game with her. She definitely remembered yesterday's lesson! Still going to email them. I started by just swinging the rope end toward the shoulder, then lightly tapping, then harder and harder until she finally moved. Seriously thought I was going to leave a welt or something. I finally had to take her head and push it away before she actually moved. But she did catch on. Well gotta go, got work to do!