Field Trip and First Bitting

Today I was feeling ambitious and decided to haul Grace over to my neighbor's indoor arena to do some riding there.  Grace loaded into my trailer, a three horse warmblood size slant load with a ramp, with some snorting and nervousness but followed me right in.  She stood quietly when I was closing dividers and fastening appropriate things, though she was too nervous to eat from her hay bag.

The roads are all still snow packed, but with four wheel drive I was able to get out of my place and into my neighbor's driveway and parking area.  I unloaded Grace and she was very alert, looking for other horses and staring towards home.  We went into the indoor arena first, so that she could walk around and look at things and check out human oddities such as mirrors, windows, and tarps.  One of our funnier moments was when we walked past the window that faces into the barn's tack room.  There was a large long haired grey cat with a dramatic white mustache inside the tack room poised on the windowsill.  When I talked to him he meowed and walked back and forth.  When Grace talked to him and put her nose up to the window he hissed and swatted the glass.  She wasn't distressed by it, just wondered what he was up to. 

I led her around the arena from both of her sides, and we went both directions.  Once she had calmed down I let her loose and she hurried about, sniffing everything as quickly as possible, trotting from one side of the arena to the other, and staring at the horse in the mirror.  She would venture away from me to something she wanted to investigate, then hurry back to me and stand quietly for a few moments.  She would leave again momentarily to look at something else, then hurry back to me.   Interestingly, when she would whinny and call to the other horses on the property who she couldn't see, I would quietly say something to her, and more often than not she would hustle back to my side.  This is a great sign that she trusts me and considers me to be her "safe place", since whenever she got nervous about the surroundings she would come right back to me for support.

Grace trotting back to me after a brave look at the far corner

Creeping towards the tarp in the other corner

 After she had checked things out and was feeling a little warm from the excitement, she relaxed enough to have a good roll in the soft footing!

Snurffling around for a place to roll

Ahhhh  just the right spot

After we were done playing in the arena we went back out to the trailer to get tacked up.  I somehow had forgotten my girth at home, so we opted to introduce the snaffle bit instead.  We grabbed the lunge line and bridle, and went back inside the indoor.  It was much less scary after a short break outside.  I put the snaffle in her mouth and bridled her, and the dear thing basically declared to me, "Kim, in all my years I have NEVER had anyone put something like THIS in my mouth!"  She mouthed it and worked her tongue around it and sucked on it working on the cookies that were pasted to the inside of her cheeks.  Once everything was fastened I put her halter on over the bridle, and I led her around the arena again, just like before, except now with a bridle.  After a lap or two and taking a moment to examine the contraption in the mirror she settled down.  I began lunging her both directions at the walk and trot, and after a few minutes she quieted down and relaxed about the bit.  Once her mouth was still and she seemed to have decided the bit wasn't as awful as she had initially supposed, I took it off of her, LAVISHED praise on her, and we walked back to the trailer.

Grace was very happy to climb right back in and head home.  Unfortunately the snow had started to melt a bit, causing my rig to get stuck not once, not twice, but three times in the process of getting out of the parking lot, back to my facility, and turned around.  Grace gave me a LOOK out of her window in the trailer as I locked the wheels into four wheel drive low.  She seemed to be questioning  the fortitude of our human conveniences.  I can't say I blame her.

Once I had the rig parked back at home I unloaded her and returned her to her paddock.  She seemed relieved, but also watched me very closely and with a pleasant expression as I bustled about putting things away.