Yesterday I visited Maddie 3 times at the Nelson's. In the morning I spent a few minutes doing groundwork in the driveway, but when I came back later I did a full groundwork session. Worked her with the lariat in the round pen and made sure she was ready to drag things from the saddle. She could drag a log and let the lariat go all around her legs, behind her haunches, etc. I even roped her legs without meaning to a couple of times and she handled it well. After the round pen work I walked her across the street and did ground work in the Bauer's cross-country course. What a blast! There is a set of graduated Irish steps and she was going in both directions off the high steps (~3 feet) very quickly. Really amazing that such a small horse can move over these kinds of obstacles. We moved on to some of the field jumps and took some of the simpler ones made out of telephone poles and she aced them every time. I was really impressed that she never refused--these are tb-sized jumps, mind you, close to 3' high.
I came back with Maria around 5:00 pm and we went on a late afternoon trail ride together. (Maria was riding Jordan) Jordan led for most of the way and both horses did terrific. Maddie did not spook once for me, and I could ride her on the buckle during the walks. When we were moving out she tended to climb up on Jordan's back, but I got her to back off without a lot of nagging eventually. We did not spend a lot of time with Maddie leading--she pinned her ears a bunch and showed a desire to kick at Jordan. Will work on this another day. We did lots of trot and canter and did most of the river trail. About 1 hour into the ride we switched horses. Maddie seemed a little fussier after this, but Maria is also a little more willing to indulge her. Both horses got a real good ride in and we put them up good and tired.
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