Mo, Zehpyr, and Psyching out for Auditions

Life has been pretty quiet since the event last weekend. I thought I would give Mo some mellow out time before the next one NEXT weekend. We have been playing a lot online, and some at liberty, thinking about our auditions without drilling them... I hope. I have been just playing around with the concepts I know I need and hoping to set Mo up the best I can.

The best part of this came the other day in the round corral. Since I very smartly BROKE our everything in a round corral about a year ago, I have been trying very very hard to have it be a happy place for Mo. We went in the other day after a little play online, just to see, and try some figure eights. At first our figure eights we non-existant, but with a little patience and some touch it with your foot on the cones at first, it slowly built itself into a half-an-eight. Mo was pretty intrigued I think, and her play drive came out every now and again when she squealed off thinking she just HAD to circle.

Somehow I managed to keep her attention, between the herding galavanting around, and the montronious horseflies, we had a great time. We built a good figure eight in its entirety by the end, which was really cool. Its not great, but its a solid start, AND I kept Mo focused on me and not just zoning out on the rail running away. Thats pretty ok by me! In between our figure eight play, since she WAS offering to leave, We played with some circles. At first they were big circles on the rail, but slowly they got closer, which was really cool. Mostly at the trot to begin. Every time she offered to come in, I took it, since her thing in a round pen was OUT, so in was excellent! A couple of time I even managed to turn her draw into a natural change of direction, which was amazing and soft and felt lovely, and Mo was happy with it !

After some nice trots, and our piecing together a figure eight, I got brave and asked for the dreaded canter. Mo poodled out after a couple of steps so we played with 'dont make me pick up the stick' and she offered a lot more. Again, she was still offering me draws, so I would take them, and then a few times I changed direction, and she did softly, though on her turns into me she was dropping to a trot, so they werent fancy flying changes or anything. But still. Awesome! And Mo was HAPPY! And not feeling driven or micromanaged or making nasty faces. it was all calm cool and connected. Then the best thing in the whole world happened.  I thought, well, what would happen if I *asked* for a change, instead of just waiting on her question to come in. WELL! If she didnt pop out a flying change of direction for me. What a star. Then end. We stopped there. I love Mo. We wandered back to the barn at liberty and our for some grass in the yard. Mo was looking pretty smug and pleased with herself. Sometimes I feel like she knows exactly what I am asking, and deliberatley does the opposite.... until I get something right and then she gives me everything. Always my teacher, my Mo.


So, all that was a day last week sometime, then yesterday I took Mo out for a trail ride, and brought Zephyr with us, complete with her bridle headstall and bareback pad. Such a little rockstar. It was pretty hot, so we just walked the whole thing, but we went EVERYWHERE on our property. It was pretty cool, and I was really impressed with Zephyr. I feel like every young horse should get to go out being ponied, because it really helps her a lot! She sees a purpose to the porcupine game on the halter - to keep up with Mo, she sees a purpose to sideways towards - follow the leader, and watch out for that tree your rope will get hung up on. She gets confident in new environments, with the help of a buddy, she gets to snack on lots of outside-the-pasture-and-therefore-much-tastier-grass. Overall, Trailrides and Zephyr are just doing wonders for her and her little attitude.

We wandered all down the trails, over some fallen trees, through LOTS of water, some shallow, some deep, through some very tall grass, that felt like we were swimming in grass, through sludgey muddy but not quite, yuck, stuff. Weaving in and out of trees, having branches catch in ropes and manes and legs, we did everything. Mo was just in her hackamore and I hardly picked up the reins at all, which was great, and Zephyr just toodled along like a pro. THIS is how nature is meant to be experienced. From the back of a horse, out there, just the three of us, calmly checking out life, enjoying the sights. It was beautiful.

Fast forward to today. HOT. Even at 8am, it is HOT! I am happy, but the ponies not so much. I was supposed to take Mo over for a lesson today, for the next competition, but in favor of saving Mo from the heat, we cancelled. So when Zephyr wandered over, I decided it would be fun to try out what I was watching on a Mastery lesson last night, just to see if I could figure out how to apply it. For fun, I let her bridle herself too. Just to get used to wearing it and settling in her mouth. It sure didnt stop her from getting grass on the trail ride yesterday!

We were just on a 12', since it was hot and I didnt really want her flying around, and we kept in the shady places as much as possible. I was thinking some walk, maybe trot stuff, but Zephyr had other plans! CANTERRRRRR she said as she SQUEALED off. Literally, she squealed and she took off. She is so funny. She cantered about a lap and a half [on a 12' mind you, pretty athletic for a young'en! not even pulling on me!] This was all her idea, I just laughed at her and played with drawing her on an arc. She was all over that and came in for hugs and love. Smart cookie.

Kind of out of nowhere, I thought, I wonder what would happen if I climbed over her? So I brought her over to the biggest log I have [its really not that big] and asked her to sideways towards me. Courtesy of her many ponied trail rides, out of nowhere, I had a sidewaysing super star. How cool is that? I have never even asked that of her, when not sitting on Mo, and voila, it was there anyways. SMART KID! I leaned over her, rubbed her bum with my leg, and then, she was so confident, I just slipped up and over. It was nothing! Zephyr didnt move and inch, and she looked at me when I hit the ground on the other side like ' So thats what it feels like to be a grown up horse! COOL!' and licked and chewed. She was just so confident about the whole thing. I felt no worry at all about sliding up there. It was like she was thinking "Well JEEZ! About time!" I feel like Zehpyr thinks she misses out on life because she is to little yet to do a lot. I ride Mo, and Indy and now Chance and we go do a lot of things, and a lot of the time Zephyr will follow along, if we are in the pasture, just to play too. I was circling Indy before the trail ride yesterday, and Captain Curious barrels over and just falls into line behind Indy, doing what shes doing for about five minutes. Silly pony. Then that gets boring and she barrels over to play with the cows... it goes on... :)

So climbing over went great. Confident, happy, wonderful! On the last climb over, I for some reason, decided to pause and sit a minute. Wow. What a cool feeling. I like how the world feels from on top of Zephyr! She was so cool, calm, connected, and mellow! She did her lateral flexion like a pro and then kind of saw something *over there* and thought it was a good plan to wander off and check it out. After one step I bent her [my goal here wasnt to go for a ride!] and she yeilded beautifully! So soft and just stopped and I hopped off. No fuss, no muss, no dust! Just me and my buddy gearing up for life in the future! What a cool horse she will be to develop! What a cool horse she IS! She is just so excited about life. I hope I never do anything to inadvertantly discourage that!

Such was Zephyrs 'first sit' as it were. It was awesome.

:)
S