I went to check on Maddie early in the day and did a little work in the driveway, in-hand. Did some passes of shoulder-in and introduced renvers. I came back around 4:00 (when the rain had lightened up enough) and I tacked her up and walked her over to Northwind farm.
She had not worked in this indoor arena before. It was no problem to lead her in, but she was fussy from the start. I made her walk for the first few minutes and then did some loooong trot sessions. I did a lot of 10m circles while going down the long side, and a lot of serpentines. For some of the serpentines I even doubled back when she anticipated the turn. Her circles were very sloppy but we made improvement. The left bend especially felt like a truck with the power steering broken. She was really fighting it, and the only thing that helped was putting my left heel into her belly. It would really help to be wearing spurs for this work, although I don't want to be wearing spurs when she spooks at things! She only jumped once or twice today, but it was always for something dumb, like a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall.
Her lateral work at the walk was very fun. She has a little trouble mentally handling shoulder in along the walls, but she does it very well on straight lines across the open or on circles. Did a tiny bit of renvers on the circle, too. In a couple of the rest sessions she was able to halt and stay still, but just as often she was fussy and refused to shut down. Hope she gets over this stuff soon.
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