Ruby stuff

 Catching up with the Ruby stuff!

I worked her in the round pen the other day, pretty basic stuff just to see where she was at mentally. 

First with the flag. Then with the saddle pad. Pretty much the same- no issues. 

She does move away from me when I try to get the saddle up on her, not sure why just that she takes exception to it. Not in a big way, just lets me know she isn't best pleased about the process. 

The good news is that I get a new-to-me saddle today that is 5 lbs. lighter and should be a good fit for her. We shall see!

Working her on line and at liberty in the pen. We discovered a few holes to be fixed too. She is pretty good going left but switching sides and going right (clockwise) she has some resistance, wanting to scoot back the other direction. We worked on that until she went around a few times without bailing on me. 

See? I like going left!

I took the halter off as the lead rope was catching in the spaces between the top of the panels as she did her sudden stop and reverse directions. We did get a nice lope both ways. I love how this mare really strides up underneath herself- I'm sure that having a long back enables that!

That long back makes her legs look short, but they aren't. 

It will be interesting to see how her physique changes now that she is being put back to work after a couple of years off. She's rump high, not much we can do about that but with conditioning and some nice work under saddle hopefully we can improve her topline. 

I love that she doesn't pull back like Sophie did! She is overall a much calmer mare, but she is a bit stand offish. One of her favorite expressions of that is turning her head and neck away from me. I work on that in the pasture; when I catch Velvet for her grain and take her out of the pen, I spend time with Ruby and give her scratches while she has her head turned away, which encourages her to acknowledge me and turn back her attention to me. She is a very emotionally reserved horse. 

The dentist appointment was interesting.

Checking the balance- left side was higher than the right

 Initially she was good as he did her incisors, without sedation, but when he got to her molars she objected so was given an oral sedative.  While we waited for that to kick in, we checked Beamer's mouth. It only needed a couple of swipes on the incisors, for the rest there is pretty much nothing to be done for him as the teeth erupt so slowly at his age and he was done a year ago. 

So between having her teeth done and having a saddle that should fit better, we are geared up and ready to go!