This session started off a little worse than I thought it would. She wasn't being wild or anything, but I had hoped she would go in and not want to back out. Back out she did, and it took three repeats of "sweat equity" to get her to go in and hold still. But! I was able to clip the rope to her halter, swing the divider over, and latch it. I spent quite a bit of time just rubbing her and watching for a "softer" eye. Finally she became more curious than anything and was looking around, playing with things using her lips. I kind of held my breath a little when I swung the divider open, didn't want her to step back before I could unclip her, but we managed okay. I didn't have the extra set of hands for swinging the divider to me today, but even so we had a slight improvement.
The next thing we did today was set the six inch raised poles in the noon, three, six, and nine o'clock positions and I had journey trot circles over those, changing directions, and halting on a rope wiggle and a whoa. At first she wanted to duck out and evade trotting over the poles, but we got that worked out. This will probably be something we do a few times a week as long as the footing is not slick. She has to really lift her back and reach with her legs. Her back is still not built up as nicely as I'd like it. Filled in better than when she came, but still a negative on either side of the spine by a little. I'm not accustomed to having a horse built that way, gotta fix it!
I expect a mutiny in the kingdom of mare this evening. We put out clean GRASS HAY. Just plain old, no bells and whistles grass hay. This typically means they will snub their noses and go pull dead stuff from under the fence. The horses seem to think that unless it is $5.00 per 50 lb. square bale they can't bother to eat it. While the neighbor's horses dive into those black and moldy large round bales like it is the best thing ever. I don't get it. ~ E.G.
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