Building a relationship

Such a beautiful warm day today- not to be wasted! I hauled Delia to the local arena, but opted for the outdoor round pen since it was so nice out.
I wanted to start from scratch to see what she actually knows for basic training.
Turns out, not a lot.
She had no idea about round penning- which I was prepared for as her former owner said he doesn't round pen his horses. So I did some free longeing with her, working on getting her to go the direction I wanted, at the speed I wanted, and to stop when I wanted her to. I'd give her a C- if I was grading her! Or maybe a D!

I would, however, give her an A for disposition, which is far more important to me than what she knows- I can always teach her new things. I made allowances for this being a new place for her and only the second new place in her life. She kept trying to check out her surroundings instead of keeping her attention on me- looking over the fence when I stopped her instead of giving me both eyes. So I worked her until she did give me both eyes, and then I rode her around the pen for a bit- I'm not too concerned about riding her at this point because she really needs her teeth done, my focus is more on building a connection with her and getting her paying attention to me, and focusing on working with me. I also worked her in hand before I rode, and she is quite familiar with moving her hip, but not so much with moving her shoulder over. So that gives me plenty of things to work on at home, no need to haul as I can do the ground work in the turn out pen.
When riding, she follows the rein well, and has a glimmer of what legs mean for direction but not at all for collection- again, that will have to wait until after the dentist visit. Meanwhile I am trying to borrow a side pull- or I may buy one if I can't find one in a couple of days.

She has a really heavy winter coat, and got really sweaty today.But she is shedding like crazy!
Of course a sweaty girl has to have a good roll afterwards!