What Happens When Then SUN Comes Out!

FINALLY! A long awaited visit from Mr. Sun, and I sure made use of this fabulous sun-shiny day!

First things first, I went on a bike ride with my Aunty, and that was super fun. Havent biked in ..ever [since florida, surely] but, its like... riding a bike... [haha] not something you forget at least :-)

After a nice bike ride we actually opted to saddle up and go for a ride! I chose Mo, because Indy and I were slated for a play-day later in the afternoon. Mo was good coming in from the pasture, they were all at The Spot, so I didnt have far to go and she came and met me part way. I groomed and saddled her in the barn and then went ot the ring to play some ground games. We did just little focusy things and played with her helping me mount again, culminating in her actually helping me mount! YEY! That was cool. Pretty much by the time I got on Aunty was done schooling in the ring, so we hit the trail.

We went down the galloping track as a short cut to avoid the laneyway due to bugs, but were thwarted when some 'vicious' cows ran at the fence scaring our ponies terribly. Lucky for me, a one rein stop is really sinking into my muscle memory and Mo and I both survived. Aunty and Candy did to! We backtracked our way back down the galloping trail and went down the laneway instead. Luckily the bugs werent to bad yet and we werent swarmed.

Slowly but surely we made our way down the dirt-dead-end road and onto the trail that connects to it. We moseyed a bit there and up into the forrest where we WERE swarmed by deer flies and that was no fun so we opted out of the forrest! Someone has been back there with a bush hog trimming cute little trails so we toured those for a while before heading back home. Mo was really good. She was a bit skeptical of a couple of rocks, but we did well.

Back at the barn I untacked Mo and let her graze while I loaded up the trailer for Indy's adventure. It was really nice that when I went to get Mo off of the lawn she actually came over to me, instead of waiting for me to come tell her to stop stuffing her face! That was a good feeling. After turning her out and giving her the sufficient quota of cookies, I went to hitch up the trusty trailer.

I have to say, my trailer is among my most favorite possesions in the world. I LOVE my trailer. It is perfect. Anyways! Once that was all done [thanks Aunty, it always goes better when I have help!] I went to fetch the Diva Queen, aka Indy. She was cute and coy as per usual. I usually go out with some crunch in my hand and she has gotten into this routine of waiting to see if I am coming for her or someone else. She sends her lackeys over to check me out first before coming over herself. Trixie is always first, then Tripp and then Crystal. Once they all pass free and clear she comes right over and everything goes great. Silly horsey.

I brushed Indy in the barn and then off we went to visit our new amis. Luckily they only live about 10 minutes away! That is SO nice! When we got there I left Indy loaded to go say hello and such. That kind of thing is good for her because every time she sees the trailer she goes "OH NO Not another 26 hour trip to florida!" so just waiting, relaxing and getting off after a ten minute trip is perfect right now.

When she did finally come off, she came off super quietly and most of all, CALMLY! I cant even express how proud I am of Indy for this whole day. She did FABULOUSLY! For a previously extreme RBE, she was just super! We hung out chatting with S and D by the trailer for a little while and then I went to set my stuff on the fence and play in the ring while they got their ponies.

Since I had the ring to myself I opted for the 45' line and went out to play! We had some cones set up as a question box, some barrels on a weave and a trampoline! COOL STUFF! I tried to start out with some nice relaxing friendly game but Indy wanted to move her feet. When I remembered that extroverts need to move their feet before they can move their brains, I relized that I should allow her to move out instead of trying to shut her down. Duh... Slow brain!

After a nice travelling circle across the ring, we settled in the back half where there were no obstacles to catch the rope on. Indy mostly wanted to trot, so we played with some transitions and change of direction until I felt like she was focusing more on me and more willing to stop/slow down. We played a little bit of sideways and yo-yo and a little bit of yo-yo on the fenceline with canter departs to back up. That was pretty cool to see the power come through.

On to the TRAMPOLINE! S set the challenge when she brought it out - mounting via bouncing - and I was really curious to see what Indy would do! Sure I have jumped all around her on the ground and such, because I am a lunatic like that, but a trampoline? Who knows... Indy gets skeptical of some things I wouldnt expect her to, so I had no idea what her reaction was going to be!

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. I sent her over to investigate, she did, no problem. I stood on it, no problem. I sat on it, no problem. I started bouncing... NO PROBLEM! HA! Go extreme friendly game! So I bounced away until she was calm, approaching and retreating as needed. The first time I launched myself at her, I wasnt the most graceful in doing so and she sort of shivered in her skin a bit, but didnt move. Lots of rubbing and scratches to make up for that! I continued though, to jump and lean over her and *try* to mount. The thing about Indy though, is she is TALL. And I am not! So even with the trampoline and bouncing, I just wasnt making it high enough.

S, though, is my good luck charm! She came out with her pony and saw what I was doing and encouraged me and VOILA the first time I try as she came out I made it up! That was a cool feeling!!! I hugged Indy and jumped down and did it again! Cool horse :-)

We went back to playing around then. Some circles and figure eights and such before saddling up. When I was ready to mount I thought it would be fun to still use the trampoline as a mounting block, but I had to be creative because now I had a saddle in the way. So... I mounted *behind* the saddle. I was midly concerned that Indy may not appreciate that, so I did some test half-mounts, but she passed the tests and didnt move an inch while I clambered up behind the saddle and scooted forwards to the right place! Yey!

Once settled we went out on the rail and played a little bit there but she got really impulsive so I put her on about a 22' circle. She tried to canter it but soon got herself under control enough to trot the circle calmly. Even going so far as to experiment with putting her head down! That was nice. What felt like a gazzillion circles later, she offered a stop so I took it and relaxed with her until she offered more go and we changed directions. Much less time to stop this go-round.

Feeling like our impulsion was pretty happy, we went over to the weave and did some of that at a walk and a trot. She really picked up the idea and tried really hard at that. It was a real treat today, to ride with her in such a partnership frame of mind. We also played a little cloverleaf uding the question box setup before SPARKY came in!

Now, Sparky is this super-awesome-uber-cool ROBOTIC roping cow thing that L has. Its kind of like Pat's except you dont have a remote control steering, it just staying straighish. I am pretty sure Indy never got to see Pat's while we were in Florida, so this was a first. I dismounted for this, just in case and went over after it stopped to say hello. We played with some squeeze games first, then when she got brave we moved up to touch-it and sideways around it. She got confident with it standing still pretty fast so we moved on and I remounted - again with the trampoline! I need to get me one of those!

When L was ready we played with Sparky. Well, we all followed while he roped it. It would go off on its line, he would chase it to rope, and the rest of us would follow and go touch it when it stopped. Indy was a little hesitant at first but she got into it really fast! I think she had fun with it.

Oh! Before we played cow ponies, we had some fun on a circle - all four of us! Two of us went one way and two the other way, with one way being spinning in the middle. We alternated which ring of the circle we played according to horsenality [Indy never made it to the middle] and trotted and cantered circles that way! It was really fun. Indy started on the second ring from the middle trotting and then as her impulsion stayed under control I moved her to the outer most ring and we did CALM FOCUSED canter circles. RHYTHMIC and RELAXED. It felt fabulous. Casual rein, happy pony, good fun! So that was really cool. We did LOTS of circles to. It was a game, so it worked for all of us.

We played a lot with the cow. That was really really cool. Indy was pretty fascinated by it, and at the end, she got confident enough to play control-holder pony, which involves standing beside the cow and keeping beside it as it runs [so as to be able to invoke the stop button in case a fence looms near] It was such a treat to see her go from afraid to confident in the span of about an hour. She is getting so... I dont know, she is just wowing me so much.

*Then* came nemesis numero deux de la jour. Im am fairly certain Indy has seen a giant green ball before, I am just not terribly sure if she has *met* said giant green ball before. From the look on her face, I am going to vote no. Her head went waay up and she got all frozen and wide eyed. Luckily I was on the ground because I volunteered to hold L's horse while he put away Sparky and fetched out said ball.

Interestingly, it really didnt take much to get her focus back, she kind of relaxed all on her own and I felt good to mount again [used the fence since the trampoline got kicked out of the ring!] The trick to the ball confidence thing for Indy was not to follow the ball, but to follow the HORSE following the ball! S's horse is SUPER confident with the ball, loves it and loves pushing it around so we opted to follow him for a while first. When Indy felt ok we approached the ball and she had no idea what to do. It was so cute. She kind of just stopped in front of it and sort of asked "What now?" I suggested she kick it, which she did, sort of, and so began our ball playing fun!

We progressed from "OMG WASSAT!?" to being able to trot and play pony soccer in one go! I really think being around the other horses that were confident with it played a huge role in Indy's success though. So that is something to remember for the future. We played ball for a while, even scored a few goals!

Eventually though we all got tired and it was time to go home! Indy got to load up and hang out some more in the trailer while I chatted and said my goodbyes [and THANKS for an awesome day] before we headed homeward bound.

What an awesome spectacular day! Good things happen with its SUNNY!!! Hopefully the sun will stick around for a little while!

:-)
S