Mo, Meet Combine, Play Nice.

Yesterday was a nice day, one of the few we have had lately. Seems like its always raining! Everything is saturated and mud is just... prevalent. The ring isnt really use-able, and neither is the round pen for more than a trot. We dont have sand, so its just slick ground and mud!

I went to go fetch my dearling Mo from the pasture. Well, I went to see what would happen. I thought it would be nice to hang with Mo, but if Indy decided to show up, I wasnt going to say no. El Princess deigned to look at me, but didnt come forward, so Mo took the chance and moseyed herself over. She won herself some cookies and scratches and we wandered our way over to what has become dubbed 'the mounting tree'. Its really just a fallen tree in the pasture, but we tend to use it as a mounting block more often than not, hence the name!

When I go out into the pasture to see the ponies, I have taken to just bringing myself, no halter, to see what I can see. I havent caught Mo with a halter in.... I dont know how long! She just comes on over, and walks with me back to the barn, or the tree, or wherever. Its such a nice feeling. She *actually* wants to hang out with me more than the herd! And not just because there is some rope on her head dictating her course of action!

We got to the tree and I sat on it and Mo sidled over so I could use her as leverage to stand up balanced, and swing a leg over. Talk about team work :-) What a rockstar. From there we wandered our way to the barn. I checked in with her on our way, doing circles and things to make sure she wasnt just making assumptions about our pattern, but she was right with me.

Once we got to the barn and crossed all the mud I jumped down and let us into the barn itself. Mo was a complete .. [was going to say gentleman? whoops] lady and waited her turn, turned faced and waited while I fingaled the gate and asked her to come with me to the grooming area. She patiently waited while I prettied her up and de-tangled her obscene amounts of hair. When I got the bridle, she was nosing around for the bit before I even got set up with her cookies! PROGRESS! She is getting super pro at putting her own bridle on, and now I have added that she has to put her own reins over her head first, she is really becoming a puzzle solver about the entire scenario.

Next came the saddle and off we wandered in to the round pen. Its not really in the optimal place, but it served its function earlier in the year as a weaning pen, and has yet to be relocated. I unlcipped Mo's reins in the pen and we played some at liberty. She was pretty with me, which was really nice. We played with some little stick to me, some figure eight and attempted some close circles. She left a few times, but usually trotted back, which was really nice!

After our little baby warm up, I hopped on, let us out the two gates and headed off down the laneway, since the ring was unfriendly. There were Cows of Terror along the fenceline of the galloping trail, and Mo was pretty unsure about them. At each threshold she had I just stopped and waited, rubbing her until her head went back down, telling me she was ok to continue. We made it passed the Cows of Terror!! Stalking Teddy up the lane was fun. He catches onto the game pretty quickly and plays along, darting this way or that.

We made it to the road without further thresholds, and Mo was really responsive on the way, moving just off a suggestion when we were going to run into a branch or somesuch, or even to traipse through puddles. At the end of the laneway we turned right and then right again to turn into the hayfield that borders on the Cows of Terror's pasture. Its high and dry and such a nice place to ride when everything else is slippery!

Mo was pretty adrenalized once we got moving around the field. New place, windy day, brisk temperature. All makes for an excitable pony! I put her on a trotting circle pattern, riding with some contact, if not really asking for collection. It didnt take her long at all to blow and snort and relax. I was really proud. There have been times when I take Mo out there and shes a mess, but yesterday she was a real trooper!

When she relaxed and started to flow, I started asking her to think about carrying herself correctly, bending on the circle and accepting the bit. Both of which she did admirably, even on her stiff side! I changed the pattern to a figure eight and picked up a canter and played with that for a bit, when the combine mowin the feilds across the street moved into the field directly across from where we were!

Lo and behold, Mo didnt even seem to notice! I am sure she DID notice, but she just stayed on her pattern, remained responsive and present and generally just rocked my socks!

When we finished, the combine was just finishing the field, in the end closest to the road, right where we would have to walk by to get home. I brought Mo out onto the road, walking home, right by this giant piece of machinery like she did it every day. It was turning and making some new sounds, so we stopped and looked at it, and waited for it to retreat. Mo just watched it, with some interest, but not concern. It was great! I knew I played all that friendly game with a tractor and four wheeler for a reason...!

Back down the laneway we went, untacked in the barn and Mo got to hang out on the back lawn for a while. I think she was pretty proud of herself. I know I was and am proud of her!

:-)
S