The lope

 Today was supposed to be dentist day, but he cancelled until Monday due to the inclement weather. BC is being inundated with rain again and it is so muddy! 

I did get a chance to take Sophie to the round pen the other day. My goal was to get her loping under saddle on the longe line to see if she is inclined to buck when speed is added. 

A note on my saddle- I see the need for a modification on it; the rigging rings where the latigo and off side billets are attached are not the best design. They don't have a lot of room to feed the latigo through as you can see in this next photo:

This type of plate rigging also has flat edges instead of rounded, guaranteed to wear out the leather  at least on the off side where it gets more pull. 

So the search is on for a saddle repair shop to change it out for me . Loooking for something more like this:

Any way, getting back to Sophie; I worked her on the long line saddled up and was quite pleased to see that she was nice and steady at the lope both ways. She seems to quite like being  worked, if one goes by her expression.

Yes Sophie, you are a good girl.

I think that most of her working life, she was not fussed over at all- just get her saddled up and go to work. I think this because she seems a little unsure of having a lot of attention paid to her, like me brushing the mud off her or rubbing her head, etc. I think working is her comfort zone- what she is accustomed to and expects.

She will adapt to my way of doing things over time!