Playing on a Saturday

Nice to get some time with the horses as we've had snow and rain all week! The ground is soft and mushy, so keeping things low key.

Tina - more ball! She was so great today and pushed the ball around with confidence! She actually rolled her front legs over it at one point and I could see her thinking, "Wow, that was kinda fun!". We worked with plastic bags and she's doing great dealing with the plastic bag rubbing on her face, neck and chest. We did some driving from zone 2 and stick to me. She's doing more licking and chewing during our sessions and seems to be ready to progress to riding again. I laid over her bareback and rubbed her all over on the off-side and started teaching her to sidle over to the mounting block. This was the 7th session of ground work and confidence building. Now, we get back to work on bringing her along as a trustworthy mount.

Cowboy - I played with Cowboy and put a ride on him for Chrissy. The ground work went well and although he had a little attitude in the beginning, he quickly softened up (10 mins?) and got his head in the game. I rode him into the arena and we played with transitions on the rail. We started with moving the fore and hind and those felt better. He's still bracey there, so we'll keep working on it. Transitions were nice and he did a lot of blowing! That means to me he started more tense about the arena riding than he showed. He was transitioning up and down from only my seat after a little time and just a pleasure to ride. He's so cool.

Chrissy then hopped on him and worked on relaxation. She seemed the more relaxed she has in a while and we talked and joked while she worked through her nerves. A great step!

Zarah - more bareback transitions from extended trot to canter. We left the property alone and I took her to a great place for grass. She was eager and willing to leave - no resistance. This was nice to see since I haven't ridden her alone on the trail in a while. My seat is better and better and I felt very comfortable and fluid on her bareback today. Excited to start jumping bareback.

I also played with Z on the 45'. We went to the hills and I asked her to go over jumps and play a solid circle game. She must have been feeling good because she galloped around me for probably 10 laps each direction! I didn't ask for that, she offered it and I allowed it. In the end, I asked her to walk the circle on the 45' and that was actually quite a challenge for her. She was just feeling good and ready to go! Her backup on the 45' was straight and beautiful. We should get started on filming our L4 online. We're ready.

Gem - trimmed his left front and hind. His hind frog was interesting and I was able to get it cleaned up and open the sulcus for better health. His lateral wall needed a strong roll but it didn't have near the white line stretching that I expected to see. I love that horse - I need to find more time to ride him somehow.