Success...

Well, our first ride since moving her was a success. Craig came to the barn with me yesterday and we got her groomed as well as possible and then I took her for a spin. It stormed the day before, but the outdoor looked ok, so we headed there. Craig was leading Sophie and got out there first and told me..."it's all mud". I told him "that's ok". Then I closed the gate and stepped into the outdoor and water splashed up around my boot. It wasn't muddy...it was soupy. It was like a layer of arena footing over two inches of water. Crazy. So we turned around and headed back to the indoor.

The indoor was...interesting. there were cones and barrels *everywhere*. I could just imagine our ride viewing what lay before us. I moved everything off the rail while Craig walked Sophie around the arena. I made sure the girth was tight and then mounted up. Craig held the dressage whip while I warmed up a bit and got a feel for how she was going to handle the indoor. She was great, didn't look at anything or get spooked by the stuff on the ground or the sounds being made around the barn as people worked.

We just walked and trotted a bit, but she was a good girl. Kind of tense, which I attribute to either the saddle or the bit. Mine is a hollow mouthed eggbutt and her old bit looked to be a medium thickness regular eggbutt. So I'll get her a new bit from the feedstore and a saddle on trial at Equus Now when I make it up there.