Ride 16

Ride 16
Beamer and Rosalee

We finally got our round pen up! So that makes it much easier for me to work with Rosalee before riding her. Shayla cam over today, and we saddled up; she rode Rosalee and I rode my B Boy.
A few trips around the round pen  and we climbed aboard and headed out. First we went to the pond to see if they would approach willingly. Well- not quite willing on both their parts but they did go to the edge and check it out. So- we did the route that takes us past the pond to the dyke, and if you remember my last post about this Rosalee flat out refused to go through, and I attributed it to herdbound issues and here I am going to add that she is kind of spoiled and just didn't think she should do it.
However- today, with Beamer for company, we went through all the water, and there was no problem from either of them.

From there we went along the dyke, and it was apparent that Rosalee was still pretty balky. She could hear the other mares calling occasionally and got all squirmy and resistant, but we did get lined out and headed on.

My favourite spot along the river.

After another moment with Rosalee, Shayla figured that we needed to do some long trotting and get her lined out and a bit tired, so we did, then found a spot where she could circle with her. 

Me 'n' Beamer watched while they worked.

After she had to work, Rosalee had a change of attitude and was quite pleasant for the rest of the ride. We discussed it, and the consensus is that she needs a good long warm up before I ride- because I am not confidant riding her out alone. If I was 30 years younger it wouldn't be a problem- I rode a lot worse than her over the years, but it's those years that make me more cautious now. I must say, I had a wonderful ride on Beamer. He did minimal talking to her, and considering it's been a couple of years since he has been ridden in the company of a mare he did really well. He didn't give me any trouble at all, other than the very beginning of the ride where I spanked him with a rein end for refusing to check out the pond.

So- lots of warm up, and lots of hauling away from home should give me back the lovely mare I had last year, and hopefully as the season goes on the warm up will get less and less until I can just step on and go. 

Meanwhile miss Mesa is 2 weeks old now, and doing really well. She has foal scours right now, but it isn't too bad. She gets her butt washed twice a day, and her and mama both got dewormed today. She also gor her second shot of Vitamin E/Selenium yesterday. This is why I halter break at a couple of days old; no stress for the foal, they are still small enough to handle without getting into a fight with them, and it makes it easier to do things like give them shots and wash their li'l hineys.

She's learning to drink water. If the tub gets too low for her to reach in she stands there and bangs on it 😏