America and I went to a friends to play yesterday and had lots of fun doing some familiar stuff and trying some new things. We had several firsts yesterday!
We warmed up online, playing with lots of obstacles: tarps hanging in trees (and blowing because we had a nice breeze), figure 8's and weaves (with stumps instead of cones as markers), circles at walk, trot, and canter and with an obstacle (small jump). sideways along a fence, without a fence, and over the stumps used for the weave. We also did some falling leaf to work on America moving her shoulder over after the turn...she did beautifully!
After the online play and trying to build a connection, we moved to a small pasture to try some liberty. Terri played with Beau while America and I watched (I still had her online for the moment). We had a fun few minutes when Beau decided to leave and America and I helped to "encourage" him to find Terri. Once they were connected again, I took America off line and we played with stick to me at walk and trot and with some turns and changes of direction. America stayed with me and put effort into keeping her shoulder even with mine. The moment did come when I lost her and she decided to trot off. She went to where Kash was in the paddock...I think she'd been wanting to meet him all day!! I played the catching game with her and she made a lap of the small pasture ending back near Kash. I continued to play the catching game, going towards her hq was thrilled when I was able to draw her from about 50' feet away!! As I approached, she had turned to look at me so I started backing away and used my energy to draw her...she came straight to me. Of course, I rubbed all over her and gave her a cookie. Terri and I took the time to spend several minutes of undemanding time with our horses. They hung with us, AT LIBERTY, while we talked. I loved how they were able to stand fairly close to each other with no "naughty" behavior, both focused on their partner (US!!!).
After our online and liberty sessions, we moved to a small arena for riding. I was a bit nervous about riding in this arena for a couple reasons: the arena is bigger than a round pen and I had my english saddle to ride in. I had dropped off my western saddle on Friday to have the fenders cut down a bit so I have the ability to shorten the stirrups a bit more. I had not ridden America in the english saddle and I don't feel as secure in it as I do in my western saddle.
We did plenty of warm up and I went through all the pre-flight checks. The one issue I saw was our lateral flexion to the left. America is very soft to the right but wants to "argue" a bit on the left. I'm not sure if it's a physical issue or an attitude issue. I plan to rule out any physical issues and then address the emotional issue. I did ride America seeing as this was going to be a passenger lesson and I am able to bend her to the left, it's just not nice and soft...something to work on!! When I mounted up, America stood still for mounting and for about a minute after that, until I asked her to move off.
I'm so happy I rode!! We had a fun ride and we had Terri and Beau in the arena with us. It kind of turned into our first trail ride although America kept cutting across the arena to catch up with Beau and a few times we ended up doing some small circles to the right...America's choice as I wasn't touching the reins. I tried to position my body to "encourage" circles to the left but that wasn't successful...she may be more stiff on that side and it could also be why we have lateral flex issues on that side.
I don't think I could have picked a better horse to try "colt starting" myself. America has been so willing and cooperative and any issues have been pretty easy to sort out. When I first got into horse, I couldn't imagine I'd ever be starting one of my own horses...I'm so proud of my girl!!
Now...to sort out that lateral flex to the left issue, to move from passenger lessons to guiding, and to move from walk to trot!!
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