Riding America!!

I played with America today in preparation for riding. To begin, we went through our saddling routine, making sure America was comfortable with everything we were doing before moving on to the next step. She did great and stood ground tied the whole time, participating in the saddling like a partner!

Once I had America saddled up, we played online for a little bit to warm up. We started with a little stick to me which went well. We then went to figure 8's and when I backed America up through the center, I sent her and she came around the cone and it was obvious she knew the pattern as she turned and went through the center and around the other cone. Waaahoooo!! She's such a smart cookie.

Next up was a squeeze over the log, turn, face and wait then repeat. She's got that pattern down so I changed it up a bit by asking her to stop 1/2 way over...tada...she did great with just a light wiggle of the rope to ask her to stop. From there we did sideways away from me with me standing still. We did great until we lost our connection at about 17'...something to work on later. Next up was asking her over the log one foot at a time. It took a bit but we managed it. America wants to bring her feet over in pairs but if I slow it waaayyy down she starts thinking down to her feet and it gets easier. At one point she was reading my body language so well, when I released the pressure while she was moving her foot...she left it in mid air!!

We moved to the round pen for the remainder of our session. I asked her to back through the gate...she's really got this pattern down and she didn't hesitate even though she was saddled and it was a bit more of a squeeze. Once in the round pen, we played with tossing the rein over her head, back and forth...all good, tested our lateral flexion...all good, checked our hq disengage...all good, jumping up and down in the stirrup...all good. Time to set up in the stirup...America moved off 2 steps so I got down, repositioned her and stepped up again...all good...she stood still for mounting. I got off then walked her over to the fence to mount from there and make sure she was good with me being above her...all good so I got on. It was kinds of funny, when I got on America nickered!!

Once I was mounted, I rechecked our lateral flexion and disengage hq...all good. Brought my life up...nada, squeezed with all 4 cheeks...nada, squeezed with my legs...nada, so I added tapping her rump with my cs...AND we're off!! We went walking around the round pen...I didn't care where we went, just that we were moving. We had quite a bit of stop and go, I went through my phases each time but each time I went through them a little quicker...no resting during the stops. There were a couple of times America got sticky feet but I persisted in the tapping her rump. She got a little grumpy for just a minute but finally moved off and we made 1/2 lap on the rail!! America had impulsion at the walk but not impulsiveness and her ears were forward...not grumpy. I decided this would be a good time to stop for the day...I wasn't going to push it on our first ride!! Interesting that when I dismounted, America stood perfectly still and when my feet hit the ground America nickered again like she did when I mounted. I'm not quite sure what all that nickering means...hope it's a good thing!!

I wanted to try a back up for one or two steps but decided since America was having difficulty going forward, I decided to just work on forward for now and leave back-up for another day.