Who turned on the light?

Lots of little things happening here; I spent some quality time with the pups this morning and gave each of them a leash lesson (they pouted) . But we had fun playing; I kept Sammi on the leash while I had them on the deck so she didn't pester them. Ace was having fun growling and playing with an old bone.

He is such a handsome pup!

I had to get some mosquito spray for the horses, they have welts all over. Then I hauled Chickory to the round pen down the road; she saddled and loaded into the trailer like an old broke horse. I longed her for a few minutes; she shook her neck once when I asked her to step up into a lope, but was otherwise really good. So today I gave her the first ground driving lesson; I used my biothane driving lines attached to her rope halter, hobbled the stirrups together, ran the off side line through the stirrup and over the seat of the saddle, left the near side line out, and longed for only about a minute; then since there were no problems I ran it through the stirrup, let the off side line down, and stepped behind her. She did a tiny jump the first time the lines tickled her hocks, then stepped out and off we went!

I hooked the lines up so that they wouldn't slide up and down the halter, and steering was no problem. The first two times I asked her to stop, I had to fence her as she isn't used to pressure on the noseband that way, but she learns quick and our next stop was in the middle, and looked like this:

How relaxed is that? She also backed every time I asked her. I did take a little video, but my battery quit about that time. I can't believe the difference in this mare in the last two months; she is like a different horse- hence the title of this post. After driving her, I tightened the cinch, and stepped in the stirrups on both sides. Since she was still relaxed, I stepped up and draped over the saddle and rubbed and patted her on the off side. Now, those of you who have never started a colt may not understand, but the feeling I got when I was doing this and could see the soft look in her eye still has me grinning; I couldn't wipe that grin off my face! I am so pleased with this filly! I should be riding her soon! I just need someone to work with me in the round pen as I never get on for the first time without someone else there.