First Kisses...

Today Sophie received her first nose kisses from me. I'm sure she was very, very excited, lol. I arrived at the barn a little later than planned, due to unexplained exhaustedness. The horses are now on day turnout, and my lesson was for basically bring in time, so I had to get Sophie. I was a little concerned, what with the stories about her ground manners, but I trekked out there anyway. I was amazed at the cuteness of every horse standing at its respective gate(s), waiting to be brought in for dinner. Then I realized that one horse was not standing in its respective paddock with its respective buddies at its respective gate...if you guessed that horse was Sophie then you guessed correctly!

My heart dropped, because in addition to the ground manners stories, there are the catching stories. I haven't heard them in a while (not since they changed to night turnout, really), but when Sophie first arrived she didn't want to be caught until after he pasturemates were taken in. So as I got closer and closer to her paddock (where she was all alone with Lonnie, since Maddie was sent away) I decided to call out her name in the sing-song voice I use when walking up the aisle to her (if I have a treat). Her head flew up (she's in a grass pasture now) and she looked at me, started walking, and then trotted halfway across the pasture. It was amazing and completely unexpected. Of course, she probably just wanted brought in for food, but until I try catching her *not* at feeding time I'll tell myself that she just likes me more than a little.

Of course, once we got inside, she was going to be the only one in her stall in the whole barn. I was a little worried, but she was just fine. I got her tacked up and was in the saddle at 6:28 (lesson at 6:30), I passed on braiding her mane, which was probably not a bad thing because I was a little concerned about how she was going to be with the horses being brought in and both end doors open so she could see everything. She was pretty good though, just two real moments and they weren't the worst she's ever had.

The lesson got started and went pretty well, we started with a couple of spiral circles and leg yielding on the long side. It really helped to keep half halting with the outside rein, it kept her more balanced, from overbending, and from leading with her shoulder. It was like magic, I kept my hands low (ie normal) as well. After that we worked on shoulder in! It was my first time working on shoulder in with Sophie.

We've realized that in order to help her with things like the shoulder in and the canter I need to work on keeping my outside hand steady and in one place. When she gets to head tossing I lose that steady connection with my outside hand because I'm I'm reacting to her. So we worked on me riding while holding on to the bight of my stirrup leather (pulled forward). It worked like a charm, suddenly we were able to do a few steps of decent shoulder in.

We tried it at the canter as well and she was much steadier, sometimes she would raise her head and I would ride her forward, into my hands, and she would come over the back onto the bit. After we did a couple of canters in each direction we stopped (it was a little early, but I was tired from our warm up). She was a very good girl though, and she got her first nose kiss after I hopped off of her. She got a couple in her stall too, while I was untacking her.

Also, my Happy Horse course arrived today! Woohooo! It's huge and overwhelming, but I'm not worried if I don't dig into it ASAP, since I'll be trainerless once winter hits anyway. Also, Sophie lost her bestest friend this week. Sophie had 2 bestest friends that left to move to Florida back in June or July, then she met Maddie, who was her new bestest friend. But Maddie had to leave for a new barn this week, so Sophie was moved into Maddie's stall and now she's just out with Lonnie. Poor girl. I think Maddie was the one that kept biting Sophie's neck though, so I'm not too sad that she's gone. She was also in heat 24/7 and would squeal and kick at the walls. Very annoying.