MY first ride on Saphira

Saphira came home from Redwater on Sunday afternoon. I've left her alone for the last couple days to let the past few days sink in. Today we got back into the training again.

I was excited to get on her. I wanted to try before taking her to Redwater, but decided not to -- just in case she decided to object -- and I didn't want to mess with her head before Martin and his crew started her. So I didn't. But TODAY.... now I can continue what he started.

She didn't come out of the pasture too nicely. Lots of stopping and wanting to turn back because that's where her herd was. But we got there. Lots of waiting on thresholds, but also applying pressure. One of the other horses eventually decided to follow us and once there was another horse heading out with us, Saphira didn't object. No problem. As I do more and more with her, this will get better. Once out of the pasture I groomed her and picked her feet. For the first time she stood still when I picked up ALL FOUR feet. First time. I was ecstatic! Every time before, she had trouble with her hind feet and had to move away from me. Today she stood perfectly.

She still has sores under her girth from the clinic. Five days in a row with a saddle and girth on after having never had one before -- sores are inevitable. So I was very cautious and slow doing the girth up. She stood very nicely to be saddled. I noticed all of Martin's guys saddled from the left side. I generally saddle from the right, so I was interested to see if she'd react at all to the change. Nope. She moved a bit and pawed the ground when I did up the girth though. I expected that since I knew she'd be sore. But I did try to be as gentle as possible.

Once saddled, I let her loose in the paddock (my newly filled in paddock!) to explore and get a feel for the saddle. She trotted around sniffing this and that. I kept her moving until she slowed down and started blowing. Then I put the halter back on, led her around, tightened the girth a bit, then prepared to mount up. When I put my foot in the stirrup, she turned her head toward me and looked like she was asking what I was up to? I pulled down on the horn to ensure she was braced. She was ready and so I mounted up. She stayed in the same position the whole time, sniffing my foot as I mounted up. Then she sniffed my other foot. Then she decided to graze. I flipped the lead back and forth a few times and asked for lateral flexion. No problem. Then I asked her to move her feet. No problem, but mostly she went in circles. I just let her go where she wanted and just kept using the lead to change direction. I only stayed on for a few minutes - long enough to get a few turns and for her to move off my leg. Then I got off. Great start! I'm so pleased with how positive she is!

I spent the rest of the session working on the 7 games: porcupine, driving and circle. She knows yoyo really well. She still tends to move into pressure, so we worked on this quite a bit. As well as driving from zone 4/5. This is also a challenge. We had quite an argument at one point trying to get her to go around me to the right. She kept stopping and wheeling left. Then I FINALLY figured out it was because we were getting close to the fence and the pedestal was on the other side of the fence. She was feeling SQUEEZED! I backed further away from the fence and she was able move past me to the right. Duh. She's more of an introvert, so my read on her isn't as easy. I'm glad she's patient! I did finally get it. We tried a few more circles to the right, then switched to the left. She was licking and chewing by this time, so we called it quits.

She was pretty sweated up when I unsaddled her, so clearly the "arguing" was stressful for her (even if she's not as expressive as my extroverted Skittles or Allegro). I need to be more aware of that in future sessions. I need AMY here again! She's my local introvert specialist! :-)

I put some dermagel on her girth sores, let her wander and graze a bit, then let her back in with the others. She did great. She's going to be a cool horse to work with.