Thursday, March 22, 2012

taking the lead

Two sessions today.  First one was a quickie--worked her in the Nelson's round pen and tried rope work from the saddle for the first time.  No issues--could swing the rope all around, recover it, drag it, etc.  Did not let it wrap around the haunches, though.  Repeated with a small log on the end.

We moved her over to a neighboring farm that had an empty stall.  It's a little quieter there and we are in the same facility as Jordan.  She will stay there until the horse fair.

Around 4:30 we saddled up both horses and went out on the trails again.  I tried keeping her at a walk a bit longer this time, but we were cantering before long again.  Today she took the lead the majority of the time.  There is a little electricity when she is alongside Jordan, but she felt pretty solid in the lead.  We also me up with Brenda on her paso fino and rode as a threesome for about 15 minutes.  We rode next to a field with about 8 horses in it and I was a little nervous.  The herd was really showing off (I'm pretty sure it was there first day on pasture this spring) and Maddie was feeding off it quite a bit.  The fencing was wire with exposed T-posts and it felt like she could go through it to join them.  So we stayed at a walk until we were away from the herd.

One quick spook at a road sign.  It's so weird--she walked right up to it, and then took a giant jump once her eye got to the back side.  But we walked alongside a couple of roads today with traffic and she's really getting good at it.

Ended with a short session in Kim Kind's cross country course.  We took the Irish steps and had a ball.  Maria said she looked so cute as we hopped up and down.  It started to rain and we headed home at a canter.  A really fun ride.

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