Last day of July 2010

I got brave today and took Taffy out for a neighborhood (mounted) jaunt by ourselves. Fore boots installed with full pads. No limping at all. She minded well until home was in sight and friendly whinnies were heard. Then we had to have a few "conversations" about who was in charge of the feet. She got a little bouncy on the front end again, so it was more hindquarter yields. She catches on quick.

On to the black lagoons... in other words, roadside mud puddles. Taffy says WHAT! NO WAY! I prefer to sidepass a mile instead! I dismounted and worked with her from the ground, rewarding the slightest try. Within 20 minutes she was standing IN the puddle instead of jumping OVER it. Such fun. She has so much interest in everything around her-lots of refocusing on me. I discovered that she will back into a puddle quite nicely! And loves her scratches and hand licks and face rubs when she has done a good job.

Earlier I lunged her a bit. Tried some direction changes- great going from right to left, not great the other way. More practice!

I do hope to show her at the county fair in Sept. Hopefully by then we'll have our communication finer tuned and the kinks in our conversations smoothed out. Whenever she does something I don't think I asked for, I have to ask myself what I did that might have cued her. She is SO responsive when she's focused. I rode her in the corral a couple nights ago and we did walk, leg yield, jog, lope both ways, a couple flying lead changes, side pass, turn on forehand. Still looking for turn on haunches/pivot buttons. I thought I had them, but they didn't work. Most of the ride was walk and jog. I love her smooth rocking chair lope. her jog is easy to sit also, if I can just balance well enough to keep her steady!

Time to find a new English bit. The french link snaffle isn't her thing. No tongue relief. She likes a ported bit that doesn't trap her tongue. I'm leaning towards a kimberwick or Myler snaffle.

So nice the weather has cooled enough to enjoy riding!