Sophie

 Since my husband had to go out of town with the truck for a few days, I wasn't able to haul to the arena on Wednesday. So today was such a nice day I thought I would just saddle up and ride. 

You ready Sophie? Let's go!

I had to work with her a bit at the mounting block to get her to stand still in the perfect spot, and then off we went. 

Well, off we went for a little ways. As soon as we got to the end of the area that Sophie was familiar with from being able to see it from her pasture, she stopped. 

She had a good look at her surroundings. I urged her on. A few more steps and she stopped again.... rinse and repeat.... 

Beamer was hollering at her as she got close to being out of his sight. There were strange things in the bush. (Dirt piles, brush piles, tire piles oh my!) And and and a pond! With light reflecting off the water!!!!

Sigh....

Miss sure of herself in the pasture is not so sure of herself out in the great big ole world. 

I opted not to get in a fight with her about all this. No point in it really. My goal is for her to be confidant in me and for me to be confidant in her. We need to take care of each other. So I got off and led her through all those troublesome things, to a place where we could just chill out and sit for a bit before heading back. 

The pros: She doesn't buck, bolt or spin around when she is troubled .

The cons: How the heck are we going to cover ground if she has to stop and look at everything?

I did some thinking as I led her back- to the round pen. If she won't go forward on the trail, she will have to work back at home.  Since she was a bit pushy in the bridle when I was riding, we went back to the basics. I bitted her up and sent her around. She really doesn't have softness in the bridle at this time, so that is definitely something I have to work on. So nice to be able to use my round pen again now that the ice and snow and mud have gone. 

She was pretty pissy about that at first. Lots of head flinging and pulling on the bit.

Not quite there....

That's better! Just a little slack in the reins. 

I brought out my rope and checked to see how she was with it whirling around her head and thrown on parts of her body. She was pretty good with it so I assume she is used to ropes from her previous cowboy life. 

So it looks like my focus will be not so much in riding until I can get a trail riding buddy to give her  confidence with another horse to follow, instead sending her back to basic training to work on softness and connection. 

I let her stand and soak for a bit before I turned her loose. She was still leaning on the bit at a standstill, so I waited until she gave herself some slack before I turned her loose and took her back to untack and turn her back into her pen. 

That's what I was waiting for! 

One more Sophie tidbit- it's looking like she isn't pregnant after all, her belly has not gotten any bigger in the last 2 months so that must have just been her winter flufffiness. All good! I really didn't need her to have a foal this year.