We go out walking

 The last couple of days with Ruby have been pretty good! Due to the unpredictable weather- bad thunderstorms and muggy heat then rain and cold days, even had the furnace on, I have been able to work her mostly in the mornings. Fine with me, I'm a morning person. 

Ruby, on the other hand, seems to enjoy a mid morning nap.

Haltered her as she lay there.... this is a first. Apparently I am in her good books now. 

My routine is to work her first in the round pen, playing around with different patterns on the little wagon wheel style course, then open the gate and not let her go through; work her again and then ask her to go through, one step at a time. No rushing or anticipating allowed. 

She is greatly improving on moving off my leg, I can pretty much steer her without the reins, but can also steer her with just the reins. She is a bit heavy on the reins and  I found that I was relying a bit too much on the reins causing that heaviness. I found this on Rudy Horsemanship's page and realised that I was guilty of just that!

"This morning a student said, “But he’s hanging on my left rein!”I replied, “Do a quick give.”
Rider gives and retakes, and the horse immediately softens.
I asked, “Tell me again who was hanging on the left rein?”

So with that in mind, I lightened up my contact and had a much happier horse. That being said, I do have to teach her to soften in the bridle, and it's slowly coming. I got some nice trot transitions where she was carrying herself in balance and the result was a nice smooth transition. Now to work on rating her speed! All that will come once I get out of the round pen and give her room to move. 

Speaking of which, we did just that today. I have been doing little rides out of the pen and letting her go back in, where she gets worked, then out again and today we only had to go in twice. I pointed her at the pasture gate and off we went! 

Spot the mosquito?

The first few steps were a bit up headed as she sussed out the view. then she relaxed and off we went. 

Thumper was out there mousing, and refused to move as we rode past him, we actually had to go around him! That is a very self assured cat. 

I finally made it to the river! It crested about 2 weeks ago and has dropped about a foot. Ruby was relaxed while we were moving but when we stop she gets a bit looky and wants to move her feet and look around. Time to really put some miles on her!

On the way back, there was that darn cat again in exactly the same spot and he wasn't about to move for us again. 

It was a good ride, finally. It's so nice to have gotten past the road blocks she set up! I have the feeling that Ruby is one of those horses that does best with regular riding. 

Got one more thing to share with you- saw the darndest thing today; this comes under Things You See From the Gazebo. 

This young buck waded upriver for a long ways; he seemed to be quite enjoying himself! I could hear splashing and thought it was just him crossing the river, but to my surprise he hove into view walking upstream! And kept on going , right past me and up around the bend. We have been seeing him around here the last few days; the does are chasing him off as they have their fawns now. 

We have seen one fawn and are watching for more - I want photos!