Bridleless!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was a fairly spectacular session! To start things off on the right foot, I stopped at the post office and mailed away my order for the NEW Parelli Patterns!! I had to mail it because I have gift certificates left from volunteering at the Harrisburg tour stop. Or had. They are used now... same difference?

MY order is gone out either way. Then I went over to my aunts and Chelsea was there with one of the boarders so I got to share my trailer excitement with them! Then my aunt came home and I got to oooh and aahh with her to! It was lots of fun... you know you are a horse person when you stand and stare at a trailer!

All the horses were close ish so I went to get Indy and Ivy in for supper and put Mo in a stall while I got invited in for supper. I figured my luck would put Mo in the farthest corner [again] if I ate and then caught her! Her poor nose is all sun burt/crispy from all the water beadingand reflecting sun so I didnt put the halter over her nose, just around her neck. This started a BEAUTIFUL theme for us!

We played walk/trot stick to me on the way back to the barn, and a really soft disengage through the gate inside! Mo went great in the stall with me driving from zone three/four to. I gave her a bit of hay and went off to eat. When I came back she looked so happy and excited to see me, it was so cute! We [Chelsea and I] had convinced my aunt to ride to, so she had to go out and catch Tucker - Tripp was already in the barn because Chelsea had just been getting back from a trail ride when I got there.

While they tacked up, I brushed Mo and re-haltered her neck and set out to visit with the trailer again. She walked right in again, after squeezing across the ramp a few times. I think she thinks its fun, which is perfect! After that we moseyed into the ring to play a few ground games. I put her hind end in the hula hoop and played with bringing it all the way over her body, down over her neck to get it off, and that went really well. Really good head-down practice! We also played with getting a really soft figure eight around two barrels at a walk. It was an extra challenge because she kept wanting to brace against the rope so A) I know our porcupine in that area needs help and B) I got to work on my draw!

We also played with some falling leaf that 'accidentally' had her jumping the 'big' jump - which is just to barrels on their side with a rail across. It was really cute though, because every time she did it, she would look back at me like "Was that good??" and ask to come in.

When I saddled her she licked and chewed. Actually, on our way TO saddling, the mounting block was in the way and Mo walzted up to it and thunked one giant Mo-foot on it and pronounced it hers. I have to laugh at her.. QUITE the sense of humour on that one.... took some convincing to assure her that it COULD NOT hold her weight! She kept offering her foot back up there. Really funny!

So saddling went great, she stood still like she always does, but she was licking and chewing this time.... for reasons unknown? Either way it was good stuff. So off we went to do some girth tightening moving around. When she was ready mount I just mounted, with the halter around her neck. Of course after I mounted I had concerns about her legs tangling in the halter should we choose to jump so I went over to the rail, SIDEWAYSED [!!!] closer and dropped the halter on the top rail, leaving me with just the 12' around her neck and tied to my theraflex 'handle' so the snap wouldnt slip to the front. Oh, and my carrot stick, I was still carrying that to.

We walked around, doing little zig zags and patterns, and Chelsea was working on canter leads with Tripp and things and Aunty was doing things with Tucker, when Chelsea ACTUALLY asked me for help, which she never does so I was pretty surprised! So I explained to her about needing the hind end to come in and things and helped her get Tripp to relax a bit, and played with that some. She actually paid me a really nice compliment, saying that at the trot my legs never move and how do I do that? I thought that was pretty neat, because sometimes I feel so all over the place and she says I am not so WHOO! Although when she asked how I sort of just laughed and said HOURS in the saddle and when I was a kid Aunty gave me lessons and it was LOTS of two point HEELS DOWN practice so I guess it stuck LOL!! Gotta love a good foundation! So no quick fixes, but she did ride around in two point for a bit :-)

Mo was awesome while I was paying attention to Chelsea and Tripp, I am really proud of her. We were sort of just pivoting around the middle of the ring, doing little circles and small diversions so I could keep her attention. It made me laugh that only halfway through the ride did anybody notice there was nothing on Mo's head. I explained my reasoning [burnt nose] and they just sort of shrugged it off. Chelsea asked if it was a Parelli thing [but no nasty undertone!] and I said for me it was, but lots of people do it [Stacy Westfall was an example] She thought it was really cool how I could do things without a bridle, which was really neat to me, and I just assured her we worked hard to be able to do it! LONG and hard!

It made me laugh to when she asked if I was controlling Mo with my legs and I said yes and she sorta went.. oh.. well.. because she is self confessed weak in the legs. Love her to pieces, but you have to use more than a bit to turn! I still have to remind myself of that to, so its not a big deal. It was so much fun being able to DO that though, in a ring with three horses doing their own thing!

Mo and I eventually started trotting around, doing transitions, and going on to canter-stop and ...get ready for it.... TAKING JUMPS! We started on the little cavelleti, that was awesome, and then went to the crossrail, which Mo was unsure about, so I got her to stop in front of it, back up and reapproach. When we did that she took it like a pro!!!! I was soooo proud of her!! We did the little ones for a while before trying the big one. The first few times she ducked out before I could arrange myself to stop her, but then I did get to stop her right in front of it. I backed her off of it, picked up our trot again and we SAILED OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! Mo was so proud of herself! Tripp finished off the feeling by taking it right after us, so it was a great finale to our ride. We walked out side by side after that, which in and of itself is an accomplishment because our horses hate each other. NO mean faces! Mo was super happy and pleased and so was Tripp.

When we finished cooling off, we untacked [not before Mo claimed the mounting block again though] and then went on to trailer loading. With there being a show this Sunday, we need to be sure Tripp and Candy will load into the new trailer. Original trailer loading with Tripp had been... eventful... in the old trialer because he went extreme LBI MAKE ME and calmly proceded to rear his protest. Apparently some good headway was made with those sessions because he was more curious than afraid of this one! Backing out was still a little wobbly at first, but he still tried his heart out.

It took no time to get him going in and out happily. I was really proud of him for trying so hard. Next came the pony... usually, Candy will skitter around the trailer, one phase four smack on the bum and she walks right in, but EVERY time she has her skitter routine. Because its Candy and we know as we do, we never really put time into trailer loading training. She gets in, but it isnt always pretty kind of thing. Not my horse, so wasnt my business to fix, but last night Aunty commented that it would be nice if Candy would load like Tripp and Mo [ie send into trailer]

Well if Candy didnt up her skitter routine!! It was bordering hysterical. She kept jumping over until she FINALLY figured out that she ran into my windmilling string everytime she went there and finally tried to head towards the trailer. She offered two feet on the ramp pretty much as soon as she realized she wouldnt be in trouble for staying in behind the trailer. *insert grass break here* Then two feet inside the trailer *insert more grass here* And then, like it was nothing, she walked right into the trailer, like shes been doing it every day and we all gae her handfulls of grass inside the trailer. Three more loads and unloads like that, no force, just send and we called it a day. In my head I am thinking' Now THATS how you motivate an LBI with extreme food concerns!' It went beatifully, and my aunt called me a genius which makes me smile. It is still cool to me that she thinks what I can do with what I know is cool, even if its not something she wants to do for herself.

So now that we were sure everyone would load, for tonight at least, Chelsea and I somehow got into a bareback mounting... not contest, but maybe frenzy? I dont know... we took turns running and leaping trying to get on Candy, who is the shortest present. Chels is taller than me, like 5'5 or 6 so she got it pretty quick. I got it twice I think. It was funny though because she would run from the left I would run from the right because thats my stronger side.

When we were both tried and drenched in sweat, with our sides hurting because we were laughing so hard, we finally put all the horses away. Nobody had wandered far - grass is to green in the backyard! Mo actually looked up at me and stepped to me when I came to get her, so that was a total plus!

All in all, a spectacular evening!!!

:-)
S