The Extrovert Within the Introvert!

Last Sunday was a fun day. It was sunny, if chilly, so I took advantage and went outside. My initial thought had been desire to play with Zephyr and Mo online and maybe ride Mo later on if things went well and the footing was good.  As per usual, things went sideways and I ended up going outside in a peculiar mood. Odd phonecalls can have that effect on me I guess.

I went outside jsut wanting to really hug a pony, soI grabbed a carrot and some other cookies and went out. I got mobbed, what else is new. Everyone got their share and then I went to the fence. Mo and Zephyr came too. I climbed up on the fence and suddenly NEEDED to sit on Mo, so I asked her to come over and she did. Lucky me. I mounted and gave her more cookies, and Zephyr some too, since she was there, looking all hungry and forlorn... right.

We just sat for a while. I rubbed Mo. Played with lateral flexions bridleless, and snuggled with Zephyr, who had her head in my lap. Cutie. Eventually I moseyed off. At first Zephyr came with us, but shortly got distracted by some overturned barrels, which was ok. Mo and I wandered around the untouched feild, making footyprints willy-nilly and playing with our yeilds. Hind quarters, fore quarters.... hows our sideways? Backing was pretty awesome. I am really proud of Mo, especially since I didnt really do anything before mounting and havent done much of anything with her at all lately!

This was all just at a walk, wandering and checking stuff... until I hear this crazy squeal and small thunder. I look over to the barn and here comes this beige little mammoth child that is Zephyr! Galloping, bucking, squealing for all shes worth, down the hill, flying over to where me and Mo are standing. She screeched to a halt in front of us and politely demanded a cookie. Really. Lesson One: Find out what motivates your introvert. Cookies. Got it. Lesson Two: Reward good things, like gallop draws. Good. Stuffing cookies into Zephyr. Done.

I put a neck string on Mo at that point, since Zephyr was pretty energized and I felt like I needed a safety net a bit. I moved Mo around a little and Zephyr would trot with us a little, tear off bucking and squealing and then come back all ears up asking for a cookie. Id give her one, and we would repeat - though her sessions of sticking with us got longer. Pretty cool. Liberty stick to me, compeltely unintentionally!

After a whole bunch of rounds galloping around, she finally seemed to run out of some steam... I thought.... She got down and rolled and rolled.... then got back up and ZOOMED over to me and Mo, all proud of herself, so she got some more cookies. Apparently this was a great pattern! She rolled and raced over to us probably six times in a row, getting cookies each time. She seemed pretty proud of her little mammothy self.

I couldnt stop laughing at her. She was just being beyond ridiculous. It was like she had forgotten the pasture was out there and couldnt help herself from playing. Since Mo was the only one out htere, she was the target! She was so exuberant and playful, I will always keep that image in my mind when its me ASKING her to do something, and trying to motivate the introvert to something fun! This was the most extroverted I have seen her. It was priceless. I am so lucky that D came out to take some pictures and video of her, because now I never have to forget it!

Mo was also a great partner, listening and being where I needed her to be. Also not getting caught up in Zephyrs crazy. She was relaxed, and getting some pretty nice stretches at the trot!

I am so excited for Zephyrs future! She is such a fun little horse! Highly entertaining at the very least!


:)
S

Jockey In Training?

The other day I finally got this wonderful oppurtunity to gallop one of the horses at work. Boy was it FUN! And boy was I unimpressed when my body flipped me off and said "You arent fit enough to do this!". On galloping days [not to be confused with fast work days] they trot two laps and turn around and gallop two more. Well, after one lap my body summarily gave out and I had to stop. Well, my legs did anyways. I was so dissapointed in myself for that! Pretty much anything that I am physically incapable of doing with ponies frustrates me. Things that I know are relationship based etc, like awesome liberty, I know I just need to keep playing with, but when my body says no, then I look to what I can do to fix that.

I am not incredibly unfit or anything, I work on a horse farm every day all day and ride fairly regularly, so by default I am semi fit, Just not in top shape like I need to be for this particular endeavour. SO! My plan, is to practice and practice and practice standing and trotting or cantering or galloping - whatever my ponies choose to give me - on MY ponies around the pasture. I figure I pretty much have all winter to get this solid before spring, when race training really picks up again and the chance to be employed as a ride might come up again. The minor fault in this line of thinking, is that it is kind of hard to ride with short short stirrups in my regular saddle. Do-able, just not ideal. Oh well. I am doing it anyways!

Today was my first chance to practice, since Tuesday was the day I rode, and then I had things to do each night after that until today. It was really nice to be able to see both girls on my birthday! I played with Indy on the 22'for a bit, just checking out her mood and seeing what she was interested in doing today. She was pretty go-y but paying attention really nicely. She even stopped midway over the barrels the first time I asked - that was a treat!

She was great when I saddled her up, and stood nicely while I fussed with getting my stirrups to go short enough - accomplished with one wrap and the highest hole! When I finally climbed aboard - with help from the water trough, it was really .... odd.... feeling to have such short stirrups in a regualr saddle! A racing saddle has a long seat and not much else to it, so when your knees are up, you dont really notice that it is an otherwise awkward position in another saddle. Oh well, I am determined to practice this so off we went.

I am not really sure what Indy thought of it. Her ears were semi back at first, but when we got trotting she was pretty content. She trots with her head up, so that helped because I could stand and grab mane if I had to, to keep balance. Her follow the rail was pretty good, and she was still listening to my leg even though it was unusally high for her! So that was great :-)

My dearling extrovert soon caught on that I was experimenting with myself and just giving her a job to keep up and kept her job up admirably. She followed the rail, she trotted, or broke to a canter/gallop on occaision, but it wasnt so much about gait, so I wasnt overly worried. She stopped when I asked her to so I could take breaks and just let my feet down! We continued this pattern for a while I had enough for the day and then I put my stirrups down and we played cutting geese for a bit. I tried to convince Trixie to play, but she said no. Crystal was right out dead asleep with her nose resting on the ground so she didnt want to play either. That was ok though, we just walked around and then went back into the barn to unsaddle. Afterwards Indy got to hang out in the backyard and have grass.

While Indy got her fill of the last grasses of the year [tear!] I got Mo out of her stall [she insisted she come in to when I brought Indy in] and played around a little bit and went outside, although only on our 12'line. I really dont know what my intention was. I think it was to play liberty but then there were ponies in the ring and I *just in case* I didnt want her playing escapee and harassing anyone.  So instead, we had this really cool, pseudo liberty, ultra intense session on our 12'line! It was super neat!

We played with all of the same things that I have been doing at liberty, and just shining them up a little more. Getting out canter stick to me even closer, our trot/walk/halt/backing together even better, and going over jumps instead of *around* them - Mo's specialty! I even finally got her to understand the jump halfway over and stop idea that Indy picked up a while ago. Jumping really isnt Mo's thing, so anything to do with it and she kind of says "thanks, but no thanks"and moves on. She was really intrigued today though and that was just fabulous!

Mo was just ON today. She was a bit spooksy because it was windy and she is goofy that way, but she was really paying attention and really amping up her try and energy. She even trotted backwards once when I asked for more energy in a yo-yo! We also got trot and canter draw, and happy 12'canter circles! Mo was collecting ALL BY HERSELF! It was SO pretty! Just GOR-GY-OUS!  Loves my ponies! 

We only really played online, in that really ultra intense way. I didnt ride Mo today. Tomorrow probably though, since this semi-ever-present rain is supposed to be gone for a few days! It was really really cool to be able to turn up the intesity and be ever so subtle and get such dramatic things done! WAY TO GO MO!

I really do need to film my L3 stuff.... silly procrastinator!

:-)
S

Mo Makes Me Smile

Plain and simple, there it is. Mo just makes me smile. She makes me so happy pretty much all the time. Just watching her graze, munching away happily rarely fails to produce a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Today was no different. In fact, today was rather exactly what I needed.

I wasnt having the greatest morning, for other reasons [although I DID find out I could get my most favorite riding boots re-sewn for incredibly cheap!] and I just wanted to have some nice horsey time. Mo time actually. I love Indy just as much but today I wanted to have Mo. Dont ask, it just happens. Luckily for me, when I pulled up to the barn Mo was in the shed AND [adorably] watching my truck very intently, as if she was waiting for me. It could have been curiosity about the rather loud music emanating from said truck, but I like to think she knows its my vehicle.

I went into the barn, got my halter, filled up my pocket with a couple cookies and then crawled through the fence to go see my horsey. And then I promptly, irritatingly, burst into tears. Go figure. Good thing Mo is the perfect shoulder to cry on. Once that was out of the way, Mo was looking at me pretty concerned. She hadnt moved and inch while I hugged her, and I love that about her. After apologizing for my outburst I went on with scratching Mo, doing my usual check over for new cuts or bruises, sadly noting the amount of winter fur already growing in, and finally putting the halter on my wonderful ami.

Lately I have been playing with mounting bareback. It is one of those things I see people do and really really want to be able to do. I am not [and have never been] the most nimble athletic person. I am an active person, I am just not one of those people who can do any sport they try the first time out. Sports and I dont like each other very much. Coordination isnt my best friend either, so trying to finagle myself into being able to swing up onto my horse is an interesting experiment. The other day, I positioned Mo on the down slant of the run in shelter and during the process of my various attempts she moved a couple inches around so that her shoulder was near one of the beams holding the roof up. On that particular try I swung up high enough, but needed a little more leverage to get all the way up. Conviently there was a beam to grab! Success achieved! 

Noting my previous methods, I tried that again today and voila, mounting accomplished. I figure once I get the muscle memory I can A] leave out the beam and B] work towards flat ground without a downslant!

For a while I just sat on Mo, just enjoying the feeling of sitting on a horse. It is my favorite thing in the whole entire world. I go into withdrawl if I cant just SIT on a horse on a regular basis. If you see me in the dead of winter, you will see me just sitting on my horse because, lets face it, in four feet of snow and ice, you cant do much more! But I just cant give up riding for the whole winter! So I just modify it :-) Its more sitting than riding when the snow flies, but its enough until spring.

Anyways, after sitting for a while I saw Trixie looking mischevious and harassing Crystal who was just innocently trying to lick the salt lick. Mo and I moseyed over and I started using what I know of moving-cow-psychology on Trixie. AND IT WORKED! I thought that was cool. I was able to move Trixie without moving Crystal. Last summer we had this grand Trixie-Tag game day, and I tried to re-create it, but she just got annoyed and hid in the shed. Oh well! It works better when you have a partner, but C was still at school.

After that I brought Mo into the barn to detangle her many, many hairs. Luckily she hasnt gotten into the burrs or devil things yet. Everyone else seems to have! Once she was all shiny we got our 22' line and went to play in the ring. Last night I was watching this lovely L3 liberty audition, so I was all inspired to practice my liberty. The problem with that is we dont have a roundpen where Mo lives, and also, there are other horses who have access to the ring when we play because it doubles as a paddock. Sometimes Mo likes to ditch me to go play with them, and thats not the best because of fights ensuing and whatnot. So I took a precaution. I had my 22' line on her, but I wrapped it around her neck so it was out of the way, but easily within reach if I needed it. It seemed like a viable plan to me :-)

And so our play began. We started just walking around, checking out our stick to me, and feeling out the mood. Mo was in SUCH a good mood! We did a few transitions, walk to halt to back up, for which I gave Mo cookies when she got it right. That REALLY perked her up. It was an introvert day today. She started to offer me little trots to keep up and even jumped the barrels in a squeeze game without even thinking about leaving! I am so proud of her! We played around with the barrels, went over to the mini barrels I have set up laying down and a wider jump and Mo popped over those to, just like a pro and stopped with me on the other side. I adore that feeling. You know the one where you stop and your horse is just so in sync with you that they stop right with you, right beside you and then turn their head and look at you to ask whats next... that one.. I live for that as much as riding.

After playing with the jumping thing we tried some sideways away and towards and that was pretty solid. Away needs so refinement, she drifts a little in front, but towards was spot on! With things going so well I decided to be brave and try things at higher gaits. Usually this is when Mo says SEE YA and goes to visit the others. NOT TODAY! OH BOY! I cant even express what this means to me. Mo stuck to me and did little circles at the trot, doing rollbacks when I changed direction, allowed me to direct her with the stick WITHOUT taking offense or getting snotty. AND THEN. Let me be 10 for a second.. OMGOMG.... AND THEN WE DID CANTER STICK TO ME ALL OVER!! For the first time in my life and Mo's we did GORGEOUS canter stick to me, with change of direction and transitions and just ... wow... I love Mo.

And then I ran into a barrel. I have to say, I really did laugh at myself. Just so we are clear, I can definately laugh at myself. I was so into watching my gorgeous pony canter around with me I completely forgot to look where I was going and ran smack into one of the metal barrels I had set up as a jump standard. I went barrel surfing for a second before hitting the dirt laughing. It was like slow motion! It was the funniest fall I ever had, for sure. On the up side, Mo didnt even spook, she came right over to ask what I was doing on the ground laughing. HA.

Back to play time! We played and played, even got some spins and some wonderfully soft backing by the tail! Mo never even tried to leave once. That is a new record. Did I mention I love Mo?

After playing with that for a while, I decided to ride again and got on bareback [I cheated and used the water trough as a mounting block though] and went out the gate and onto the trails. We rode the trails a couple o times, splashed in the water and then came back. I let Mo graze in the back yard while I layed in the grass just enjoying looking at her. She is so pretty... but perhaps I am biased..

Such are the events of my day today. Mo the awesome Liberty Star has arrived. And I loves her.

:-)
S

What Happens When You Think the Trailer is Locked...

As per my newly assumed routine, when B leaves to her feeding job, I go over to feed Indy and Crystal and then over to the other J's to play with Mo, and then B comes to play with Chance to. Well! Yesterday I was clever, and asked B for her trailer keys. She normally keeps it locked because we have all of our things inside the tackroom. Today I wasnt so clever. I later found out it wasnt locked for this express reason, but for the time being, keep in mind I thought it was.

As far as tools go that left me with my shiny [ugh] new 45' and the savvy string on my belt. Oh Boy! Looks like I really get to practice that liberty I have been procrastinating on! I called Mo. She looked up from her hiding spot in the woods but didnt come over until I got closer. But she did come somewhat in the end so that was good! We played hard yesterday and it was very warm so I am glad she doesnt hate me for that. It was a little cooler today and overcast so that was nice for her. We even got showered on two or three times, so a nice little cool down mid play was good.

When I met up with Mo, Chance and Reggie [J's horse] came to say hi to because I was carrying a plastic bag with my water and a snack in it, as well as Mo's carrot chunks. I was thoroughly investigated before shooing the other two away and protecting my herd of two. I put a coul of my 45 around Mo's neck and we set off over to the trailer. Half way to my end point I did a big interal DOH and groaned aloud Im sure, becuase I realized I had no keys and therefore no halter, no carrot stick no saddle. GUH. Round pen and liberty it is!

We went over to the round pen and played a bit. Our departs we crappy in the bigging until I figured out that swinging a small portion of the rope to make a whirring noise works better than throwing the whole coil at her hind end. THEN we got some go. But not a lot. Mo goes on a rollercoaster of adrenaline. up and down in the span of a minute. One second shes all "WHOOOHOO YEEHAWWW" and the next shes plodding around like shes eighty. Which is fine. Its just an observation.

I have been playing with transitions to backup on the rail in the circling game so we played some more with that and got our stick to me yo-yos going pretty good! Some real hind quarter power going on there! That big draft butt is actually getting some use! In my grand lack of imagination I got bored and just jumped on bareback and bridless because with Mo I just can... in a round pen her go level is uber low anyways so mostly we just stood around. Eventually I jumped off again and we played a little more with stick to me.

B came around then and showed me my brilliance in that the tack door WAS OPEN. *headdesk* Oh well. I ran with the theme and only extracted a carrot stick from the formerly-locked-but-not-any-more room. Mo perked up then. TOOLS are important. It was so much easier to be CLEAR and precise with what I was trying to get across with the carrot stick. We played in the round pen with B and Chance there to and THAT was an adventure!

Each horse had to figure out who was directing who and not react when, say B was slapping the ground at Chance, Mo had to know to still stay with me. I kept jumping on and off Mo because I am not creative enough to keep coming up with things, but on one of those time I DID kneel on her back, and stand almost all the way up! I could have stood all the way, but I dont trust MY coordination. Yet anyways. I am working on it.

We played around doing little things and I found out that my sideways circle game that I invented [?] works REALLY well at liberty! I just put my hand in the same place and off she goes into a sideways circle! I knew I was being super precise about the change in REGULAR circle hand to SIDEWAYS circle hand for a reason! I felt slightly clever at that.

I hadnt planned on riding really. Mo worked hard yesterday, and I was happy just plodding around bareback, but when I finally [and I mean like hours later] got Mo on the 45' with a halter and we were playing around in the yard with the logs an drunning and jumping and doing changes of direction at 40', my addiction kicked in and I just couldnt resist. I LOVE playing on the ground, but I am ADDICTED to riding. It fuels my passion. Ground play is fun, and very cool, it is something I always want to get better at, but riding is what I want to excel at. I ADORE being on my horses. Sometimes that bites me in the ass and I mount to soon.. but live and learn right?

So anyways after that strong run around warm up [adrenaline boost inserted here] I saddled Mo and did our preflight stuff. She was happy and so I bridled her [which she is getting SO GOOD AT! I am super proud of that, no more head throwing or anything, bridling OR unbridling!] with the Cradle for kicks and off we went. We played around circling the round pen from the outside since B and Chance we in there, and that went good, just freestyle. Then I made myself pick up the reins, since thats another thing I procrastinate - FINESSE! I am just fine riding around freestyle, I like it, my horse likes it, and we have a good time. I found out in my six weeks that Mo is ready for Finesse, so I know all thats holding us up is me. I have a hard time picking up those reins. Donno why, I just have a brace about it. I am working on that to...

Reins in hand we went around walk and trot and over to the logs, where Mo 'saw' something and got all snorty [for her.. she doesnt really 'do' snorty!] uppity, lets call it uppity. Her usually level head comes up and her ears prick and she looks at whatever and she trots faster. We did figure eights around the two logs until she calmed down and thought about the pattern. Yey Patterns! Ill have to get pictures of J's Playground. Its really cute !

When my dearheart calmed down we trotted over the two logs, jumping them and that was COOL! We started with one and then the other and then jumped both as a double jump! YEY MO! I will make a hunter of you yet! Then we went down the scarier end of the feild and did patterns ddown there and jumped the other single log and then the medium size pile of three logs! YEY! I am so proud of Mo! The only set she hasnt done [undersaddle] is the big pile of logs that is just *this* side of my comfort zone with Mo because she is such a sporadic jumper. Maybe tomorrow :-) I also dont want her to get sick of jumping, so we only did it two or three times.

After jumping we went back over to the round pen to work on should swinging and then went on tour around the pasture fenceline over to the water trough to get a drink. Yesterday in the confidence snaffle Mo couldnt get enough suction to get a drink so I had taken off her bridle for her to drink. It was quite the to-do to get the thing back on without dismounting [lazy me] so when Mo turned her head to ask me to take off her bridle again I politely declined and listend for lacking suction noises, there were none, she was just trying a new trick HA! Smart pony!

Finishing our tour of the fenceline I headed us back to the trailer to unsaddle. We went into the round pen again and played some more at liberty. We played with our figure eights at liberty, which, after some support from B to reinforce stick to me, went really well at a walk! AND then I had a Mo glued to my shoulder thereafter. It was great! Mo was even sad to see me go! Looking all forlorn at the gate and whatnot! SO CUTE!

We were supposed to bring Indy and Crystal over to the other J's [home] again tonight like last night but we were all to tired so we just skipped and planned for tomorrow. Indy was happy for dinner today, and is happy and healthy except her left lower eyelid is swollen a little. B is going to red light it for me tomorrow. Hopefully that will help.

Other than getting some groceries [by me-style groceries I mean milk, OJ and some tasty brownies that caught my fancy] thats about all I did today. About 4 hours with Mo, home for lunch, groceries, then tired relaxing on the couch and computer! I am liking this 'holiday' concept!

:-)
S

PLAYTIME! Sort of....

Since everyone else in the office is on holidays, we got ot leave a little early from work yesterday. Just enough to make it to the barn and still have a little daylight left to play with! And the weather was even being reasonable, so that was a total bonus.

When I got there, Mo was on the other side of the lower pasture fence again, and she just looked at me while I approached, so I went out back with a cookie and a halter to see Indy. When I got to the back door I was swarmed by Trixe and Tucker and Pride. I was able to defend my space enough with out [I hope] being rude, just in a "Sorry I am not just here to socialize with you all today" kind of way. They made their way carefully away across the ice while Indy actually came to me! I was so relieved when she did, because the last time I had a halter in my hand [even after all kinds of great come to me at liberty stuff!] she walked in the other direction.

She walked right up to me and said hi! When I went to put the halter on I wasnt demanding at all, I just WAITED. That is a HUUUGGGEEEEE thing for me that I learned at the ISC. I waited for it to be her choice to put the nose piece over her nose, and that made all the difference to her. As soon as it was her choice, and the halter was on, she licked at chewed A LOT! YEY for good starts!

When I sent her through the gate into the barn she tried to go in her stall, which is the first one on the left, so I had to stop her and brought her back to the gate for a cookie so she would hopefully see the point is to stick with me, not make up her own story lines for now...

We played a little practice yo-yo up and down the barn aisle before going outside onto the laneway - which was now perfectly melted and I have somewhere to play!! We walked partway down the laneway, going handy grass patch to handy grass patch - she was thrilled with that because the pasture is obviously picked clean. The mysterious re-appearance of grass in december is nigh unheard of!

We moseyed down the lane past the swingset and into the yard where there was some tasty longer grass. Indy was pretty pleased with that. After point to point grazing for a little while I tested how light we could be to get up and leave the grass - she is pretty light! On the laneway again we played with walk/stop beside me transitions. The first stop leaked a little, but when I added in back up she understood the intention more and each other stop was right with me! Back up is still a little stick, its not her favorite direction to go, but its definately better!

The first time I transitioned from walk to trot she got this big energy burst and I could hear her doing her BIG TROT behind me, and she came up and passed me for two steps and then, just when I was thinking I would have to get in a power position to hang onto her [we have done this before] she disengaged herself and looked at me like "OH boy, that was a big energy burst... can you help me control it??" I was floored! Indy got a cookie for that! And we played more with trotting not being a scary-cant-go-there-without-being-right-brain place. Just two steps of slow trot and then walk or stop. Transitions, lots of them, until we got a few steps of slow calm trot without it looking like it might explode any second. YEY!

And thats where we stopped! Mo was at the fenceline by this time, and its a good thing she was. I like to play forever, but Indy right now needs short little bursts of learning [because it makes her unconfident] combined with lots of happy go lucky undemanding time, so she still likes to be around me. Having Mo waiting for me at the fence essentially tapping her watch MADE me stop with Indy when I should because I wanted a chance to get Mo out of the icey ring to. So Indy and I walked back to the barn, still practicing our transitions, and when I let her go, she actually turned her head to me AFTER I took the halter off. What a nice treat!

Catching Mo was easy... go anywhere near her, she comes over and tries to find the halter and shoves her face in it so we can GO ALREADY! It might be anthropomorphizing, but to me it looked like she was ecstatic to see me and tickled pink that we were doing something. LOVE IT!

We slowly stepped across the ice and out the gate onto the laneway. I could see Mo visably relax when she realized she had solid footing under her. It must be terrible trying to walk on mostly ice all day! I think it is better out further into the pasture, but come 5:00, they all start coming to the barn begging for dinner!

After loving on Mo for a bit I took off at a trot over to where I had been grazing with Indy. Mo sumarily attacked the grass with an enthusiasm reminiscent of a fat kid given smarties... it was so cute! Her ears were all perked and she was all happy to just eat grass! Thats pretty much all I did with Mo, just hang out with her, shadow her while she ate, let her graze until it was dark and then bring her back to the pasture.

She was so funny when I was trying to leave. She kept shoving her head under the gate chain [two narrow gates chained together, space in between] thinking she could fit and sneak in with me. Then giving up on that and putting her head OVER the gates and into the barn so I couldnt close the doors. Mo got a lot of extra hugs because she was so persistant. I had run out of cookies in my pocket though, so when I finally got the door closed [sorry Mo] I ran into the tackroom to grab a few more then out to the front gate to call Mo for her treats, so she wouldnt get attacked at the back door.

I think she knew exactly what I was doing because as soon as I called her name she was on her way over. I feel like if it had been solid ground she would have trotted to me. She got her extra cookies and love and then I finally had to go home. She always looks so forlorn when I leave her at the gate like that.... I keep telling her I WILL come back though.

It was really nice to be able to play with/hang out with both of them. Even if it was just short, fifteen minutes maybe for Indy, maybe a little more for Mo before it got dark? Or maybe a hlaf hour for both... I am not sure, I lose time when I am there.. but I was there for an hour doing all that I did. But yes, very nice, I felt very successful with Indy, which was a welcome change, as she has been my brick wall, and hang time with Mo always makes me happy.

I am SO glad I got that time yesterday, because today the winds are gusting around 100kms and its COLD. Welcome back Winter.... dang..!

:-)
S

Ground Play

Sunday was a good session on the ground. Riding was a bit of a joke so I just wont go there. On the ground though it was fabulous! Me and Mo did the weave pattern, where I found a rather gaping hole in our driving from zone three on the right. It didnt take long for Mo to get over her "OH NO I dont get it!" thing that she has been doing lately and lower head and lick and chew and try her heart out. So that was nice

ALSO! We did cantering stick to me again!!! It was so exciting! We played on the ground with lots of energy and adrenaline. We ran around, played with some stick to me, falling leaf and high energy stuff.


It was really great.

When I saddled and mouted things started off ok, but went really down hill so I ended up getting off more than on.. but Oh well!

:-)
S