The Journey Begins.

The journey to softness.... the journey to communication... the journey to partnership...

We are off to a good start, this mare and I.
Hauled up to an outdoor arena, and had it all to ourselves. First thing was her not wanting to stand still for mounting; but let me back up a little bit- when I saddled her at home, before loading in the trailer, I noticed that she was a little worried as I put the saddle on. I made a mental note of that, and will get body work done to rule out any physical discomfort. Another thought is that previous saddles may not have fit her well and she was anticipating pain- which may also account for not standing still for mounting.
Because she wasn't standing still for mounting, I flapped the stirrups and caused a general commotion with them, swinging them around, snapping them etc. until her feet stopped moving. I didn't start that until she moved her feet, and didn't stop that until she stopped her feet. Once each side, and by golly next thing you know, she stood perfectly still for mounting. (Grin)
Our walk work was, if anything, boring (fine with me!) She does round up with just a little leg pressure, and moves all her body parts as asked, although we need to perfect all of the pieces, they are all in place.
Trot work also went well, we will work on smoother transitions and more impulsion as our journey continues.
For the lope, I asked for it out of a rollback instead of out of a trot, and she picked up both leads nicely.
There is no charginess, no head tossing, no arguing, just a nice willing mare. If anything, a little lazy, but I think that will change once we do her body work, her teeth, and her feet, and find what interests her. I think she has had a lot of arena work and finds it boring ( Me too!)

Here she was watching some people walk by with their big fluffy white dog.
Another thing that made me happy- my saddle fits her!

I made sure to set it so that the bars are behind the shoulder blades; to a lot of people this would be too far back; but as you can see in the next photo, her back is all dry, and look where the sweat from the cinch is.

She does have a high wither and a narrower back. Eventually I will get another saddle more suitable for showing, but for now, my everyday working saddle will do the trick.