Another super-calm session with Maddie. I put her in the aisle and went back to work on her feet. I removed the excess bar material on the fore and hinds, and brought the hind heels down to the sole. She is still more ticklish on the hinds and they need to be rolled a bit. Strangely, even with the heels lowered her hinds still have a funny break in the pastern.
Started with long-lining off the bit. My feeling is that long-lining is not the best exercise for the advanced horse. It's just too demanding on the trainer to keep good contact. But I felt this was a very good experience for Maddie, to feel that bit pressure in motion. She was difficult to keep on the circle, and when I used the outside rein to keep her out there, she ended up bent to the outside. But she really did well. I got directly behind her a few times and drove her around the arena a bit. I also got her to back several times. Changes of direction were very easy. She is just touchy when you take contact on the outside and tends to turn all at once.
Did the C exercise off the bridle. The far end of the arena is frustrating--why is she still afraid of it???? It's gotten better, but she just spends the whole time down there acting much more stupid than she should at this point. Jumpiness, stiffness, etc. I did a lot of resting down there, and a lot of flexing.
I ended with backing her down the entire barn aisle, twice. I had to really act crazy to keep her moving, but she did it. Overall today was intentionally fairly quiet, with a lot of head lowering, flexing, and rubbing all over. She is still kicky around her loins but we are making progress. Go, Maddie!
BTW, my plan is to do 2 more days of groundwork, and ride her on Friday when Lalo can come over. We had talked about doing that today, but I canceled after yesterday's session. I felt Maddie should be flexing lighter and more reliably before bringing Lalo back and getting in the saddle again.
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