Indy's first road trip

Tania called me up first thing this morning and asked if I wanted to go to Fultonvale again. It IS September after all, so the weather we're having is definitely not going to last. So I agreed, hustled my butt and met her out there at just after 9:00. I didn't take Gypsy though... I decided to take Indy. She's the only horse I haven't taken anywhere yet, so it was definitely her turn.

I loaded and unloaded her a few times before shutting the trailer. No problem. She's done this lots before, so now it was time to actually TAKE her somewhere. Road trip! She actually moved around a lot less than Jake does, so she did really well.

Once we got there, I walked her all over the place and let her check everything out; she's so curious about everything. Then I turned her loose in the arena and just let her explore in there until Tania arrived.

We started with lots of circling, yoyo, squeeze and sideways. She did sideways really well this time and her squeeze was even better than Gypsy (nice disengagement and backup after). She was pretty low-key by this time and Tania was already riding, so I decided to get her saddled and get on.

She didn't stand all that well for the saddle, but it wasn't about the saddle, she was more distracted - trying to see around the trailer to where Jack was (Tania's horse). I had to reposition her several times to get her to stand while I did it up. Mounting was similar, she kept wanting to go toward Jack and check him out. I did eventually get her to stand for me.

Then for the next 45 minutes or so we did lots of walk/trot transitions, change of direction and disengaging. I tried some sideways with her as well, but she'd always give a mini-buck every time I bumped her side. So I did lots more of that until she stopped trying to buck (more like a kick and a head-toss than a buck, actually). She still objected to my heels on her side, but she was less demonstrative about it toward the end of the session. I guess I need to do lots more porcupine-game on the ground with her.

I was really impressed with her today though. Yes, she gave me some attitude here and there, but really, she showed me that she's actually a pretty solid horse. Nothing much fazed her at all. She almost cantered when we were following Jack when he was loping, but she didn't quite make it. I wasn't really aiming to canter though as I just wanted to work on refining some of her rein and leg responses, which is a lot easier at the walk/trot!

I'm still using just the hackamore halter on her. Once she's going well off my leg and turning and stopping well, etc., I'll introduce the bit again and start asking for some refinements.

Really pleased with how she's coming along! Another superstar in the making! :-)