Riding Grace

Grace had been following me around all weekend, asking what we're going to do next, saying she has had enough time to process and let's get down to business!  While the footing is still gross, it was cold enough today that it was more frozen than slimy.  I took Grace out and tied her to the hitch rail, no worries from her this time and she only tried to untie herself once.  I got her all tacked up in her loaner saddle, a breastplate to try and minimize shifting of tack, and her cute hackamore/noseband bridle.  We went to the round pen so she could do a little trotting and warmup, then practiced mounting with the stirrups from the mounting block, rather than just a leg over her back like with the bareback pad.  It was a weird sensation for her to have weight on one side of the saddle, so she did a little scooting forwards and backwards when I stood in the stirrup.  No big deal, mostly I ignore that kind of thing and just try again.  Finally she decided it wasn't a big deal to just stand while I weighted each stirrup, leaned over her back, and then swung my leg over.  She needed a minute to collect her thoughts once I was up, but regained her focus really quickly.

We began walking around in the round pen to the right and to the left, bumping my stirrup on the fence of the pen (no big deal after a couple times).  We practiced turning in large and small circles, and did a few pivots each direction.  We practiced walking and halting and then walking again.  Then I hopped off, and Grace looked at me, surprised that I turned up on the right side instead of the left where I mounted.

Then we went to the arena and did it all again.  She was a little concerned about the wobbly-ness of my black mounting block in the snow (so was I!) so we did some ground mounting instead.  Grace did well, again we walked around the arena and practiced starts, stops, and turns.  The footing wasn't suitable for trot work, so we've saved that for another day.  She definitely wanted to be in her favorite corner of the arena, where she is closest to her paddock/"safe place".  But she tried so hard to understand what I'm asking of her, and was a good sport about walking away from the favorite corner and then halting on her way back to the favorite corner.

Next on the agenda with the snow and impending sub zero temperatures will probably be to get started on some bit work, and some ground driving with a snaffle.  Once we get out of the deep freeze (hopefully before March!) I'll head over to my neighbor's to use her indoor arena.  That will give Grace some experience hauling places to work, and give us good footing for some trotting and canter work under saddle.