Time Off is Wonderful!!!

Really wonderful :~)

I rode Sora again today and once again she was wonderful (over use of the word? :P). I wondered about her before I climbed on her because she had been in heat this weekend and she went through a fence while I was moving horses out of the arena preparing for our ride tonight.

The fence was easily fixed and Sora is fine other than a tiny little welt on her chest. That is one reason why I like our thin wire for fence, it will snap before a horse hurts itself and on our large farm away from any roads that is preferable to always needing to keep them in.

As soon as I put her in the crossties I knew she was going to be calm and wonderful. She stood still and listened as I tacked her up. I'm so impressed with how much better she stands for her hooves now. She lifts them all nicely and stands still with them up for a fairly long time. Now I'm just hoping she does the same for my trimmer next time she comes out!

She stood perfectly at the mounting block like normal. She stands still and watches me while I get ready, putting the stirups down, reins over her head, etc. The look on her face is so cute, like she's waiting for me to get all that stuff done and just get up already but she never moves a foot until I'm on and I never even trained her to stand still like that lol!

Once I got up I rode her around with her halter for awhile and she was good, especially once she got going, so I switched over to her bit. I would love to never make her wear a bit but I know it's important if I want her to be able to do Dressage and all of the other things I'm interested in doing with her. She was not happy about the bit in her mouth and the fact that I was pulling on it and I was really thinking about just putting the reins back on her halter and riding her like that but I realized that if I don't start working on it she'll never get better :-s so I stuck with it and after a few minutes she was turning and stopping fairly well. She is going to be very light on the reins. So much different then Loki who acted like he was trying to pull my arms off. I will work more with the bit this week and hopefully by sometime next week I'll be able to use the bridle alone and get the halter out from underneath it.

On a slightly different note I need to order another bit :O I've been using this one but she already has pretty bad chew marks in it right over her tongue that actually split the plastic open and I don't want it hurting her so I think I'm going to get her an all metal one like this.

After I had worked with her with the bit for a little I attached the reins back to her halter and took her on a trail ride. Once again she leg yeilded right over to the gate and stood still while I opened the gate and leg yeilded out nicely. We went on the longest trail ride so far and other than some pretty big spooks she was wonderful. I don't even mind the spooks because after everyone I feel more confident in my ability to stay on and she never tries to bolt or do anything else silly.

I still haven't gotten a sister out to ride with me but I'm not going to complain because it is giving me a chance to work on getting her out on her own. I can't wait until my next ride. Seriously Sora is the best horse I can possibly imagine :D I will be getting more pictures from next time I ride so no fear :~)