Pushing the boundaries

Mine and Bailarina's!

We had a bit of a full on day today and Little B had quite a few firsts to contend with, I'm pleased to say pretty much all positively too thank goodness!

She was in quite a feisty mood and before we'd gone ten yards out of the gate to come in had been asked to back up twice as she was in full on head tossy wheee mode the little monkey! She got the "ahem, behave yourself !!" message after that and walked in nicely and attentively on a loose lead.

Gave her a good grooming and detangled her mane then tacked her up for a walk out in hand again.

This time we added proper long reins attached to the bit for the first time, then run through the low roller rings and tied up and attached to the top of the roller...to use if the opportunity presented itself, but more importantly to add the feel of a tiny bit of contact on her mouth with the weight of the rein. I was actually leading off her rope halter in case of any shenanigans

I decided to really ask her some questions tonight, but not any that I thought would be too difficult or totally blow her brain.

So we went off down the flitch way, we'd already gone down this part before, but I was planning on taking her to the end of that section, and if she was accepting and calm, on down the road past the banana depot and up onto the next section which runs alongside a busy dual carriageway and leads to a bridge across it.

She was nice and fowards but being a good girl, so I led her onto the road, she was a little tense because it was something totally new, but still happily following, over a big slow sign on the road, past some wheelie bins (which we all know contain horse eating monsters!) and onto to the next bit of bridleway where we could have a nice trot on in hand.

We pootled along over the gateway with the horse arch to step over with me leading until we got to the part where she could really see and hear the traffic through the fencing and I could feel her tensing up - she was a good girl though and stood and watched without getting too skitty...in actual fact she started objecting to the boring standing still part and kept trying to walk off towards the bridge nearer to the traffic noise! All a bit rude for my liking so I brought her back to stand again and she had a little hissy fit...managing to land one on my poor foot (in trainers to aid the running as she trots...oooh ya OUCH!!!) 'fraid she got growled at for that misdemeanour!

As you can see she did settle and was happy to watch the world drive by.

Big trucks were still a bit scary as they whooshed past, but honest to goodness I wasn't expecting her to even want to get anything like this close, so I know we at least have a good foundation to work on (the best bridleways are all over this bridge so it's definitely going to figure in our future walk outs) She trusts me enough now to stay with me even when it was scary and she got a huge fuss, praise and scratches. This is the biggest question I've asked of her yet and although it was a big ask she managed it really well.

We turned around at this point and I let her take the lead back along the track back to the lane and then round to the yard.
Back in for a really nice groom and her dinner then off out for the night to chill out after the exertion! Tomorrow she'll just come in for a brush and feed.

Thought I'd add a few more piccies from the other night in the field with the inhand / baby lunging...just look at the articulation of those hocks!!