Saturday, April 19, 2008

Lesson over...

What a day yesterday. Got to the barn on time, barely, and gave Sophie her first watermelon treat out of the batch I bought at Equine Affaire. She seemed to like it ok, though made the usual horse funny faces. Then I got started with brushing her...she was a furry mess. A shedding machine and definitely put her new pink brushes through their paces. After Amanda arrived I gave her another watermelon treat and she bit it in half and spit out the other half! Aack. She's supposed to *love* them. I looked ALL OVER for them! So I picked it up in all of its grossness and gave it to her again. She let it dribble out of her mouth in crumbs, so I left it.

So then we went on to do our lesson and it wasn't good. She had her teeth done on Wednesday so we're thinking that her mouth was sore from having her teeth done (they were in BAD shape). We got nice stretchy circles to the left, but not at all to the right. However, she was a lot stronger in maintaining her bend and staying soft and round and keeping the contact with the bit/hand.

I'll have one more lesson next Friday, weather permitting, and then we'll bring Sophie home a few days after that. I decided to hold off on trying my saddle/bridle on her for next time. I compared the bridle sizes and mine seems to be just a touch smaller than hers, so we'll see.

She looks great in her purple breakaway halter, and I did get some on the ground pictures of her that I'll post after I get the camera out of the car.

I did get some good news on both sides of the breed registry front. First, the AHA send me my membership card/pin number, so I could enroll Sophie and I in the frequent rider program. That's where I log all of our riding time and they send little gifties as you reach certain milestones. And on the ATA side, they found her papers and are getting them processed the rest of the way ASAP. Phew. I was really worried about what I'd do if they didn't find them.

I can't wait to have Sophie here. Especially once I get her shedded out the rest of the way. Then I'll be able to give her a bath and do a photo shoot with the awesome purple Arabian halter that Amanda got me as a horse warming present. It is soooo pretty, and is going to look great on Sophie's petite, Arab head.

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