Working and Walking out

Couple of days to catch up on.....

Friday - lunging!

I had thought I'd have to go right back to the start again with Bally and the lunging, but should have known she's far too smart for that *rolleyes*
Led her in with no shenanigans, tacked her up and out into the field we went. Started with a nice marching walk on a large circle and then using the whip and my position in relation to hers added small circles, straight lines and corners (have to use my imagination as to where the markers would be...not many to hand out in the wild yonder of this field lol) Bally was like an old pro and did everything on the button Yay!!

On to transitions and half halts and as usual her left rein were sharper than her right, so she had a couple of corrections on the rein to remind her that halt means halt, not slowly creep another five steps and turn in!
Nicely warmed up I popped the running reins on (again very loose and not holding her anywhere, just for the feel of the rein on the bit) and we did some trot work, mirroring what we'd done in the walk, well again she was fabby. Great on her easy left rein... A bit rushed on the right so I added the half halts and smaller circles almost straight away to get her think and it worked a treat :-)

Finished off with some nice long stretchy walk work and then did a quick couple of minutes in hand work off the cavesson. Got some really really brilliant leg yield, just five or six steps on the circle, but she was so soft and flowing I was just *yahoo!!!!!*

BTW Dee wandered over and got in the way a few times, but obviously decided that B could do all the work Lol ;-)

On to today and I took Bally out for a lovely hack

First off I had to say hello to a very sleepy Little Dee

Like Bally she had no problem with me coming up and saying hello for a scratch whilst she snoozed in the sun...I am blessed with the looking after the loveliest girls!!



Anyway Bally and I wandered in and I tacked her up with her hacking tack...saddle, bridle and loads and loads of fluorescent gubbins. She didn't bat an eye at having her saddle on (first time in..yonks!) Popped her rope halter and long line on and off we went.

Much, much more forwards - yet far calmer this time, we went up the lane again. One moment of absolute heart failure on Bally's part about five minutes in. There are some beautifully landscaped fishing lakes across the lane from us and B took enormous exception to a chap sitting in his chair about fifty feet away completely minding his own business...this caused a full on, anchor slam giraffe necked dragon snorting meltdown
I had to coax her past as she did her very best Ayrab impression PMSL
On we went once calm was restored, we met cars coming both ways and were managing to just completely ignore them and keep walking which is a big step I think
We turned and went up the hill towards the yard, past some big signs advertising the garden opening (approach, sniff, click, treat *big Grin*) she saw horses in the distance and stayed calm and with me, she said hello to some decorative boulders..but had to be persuaded as they were obviously out to get her .....

She even paid no attention to a couple flying a model airplane that was buzzing around in the sky above her. She looked at it a few times as it swooped about and just walked on unconcerned

We turned around after about 20 minutes and made our way back down the hill uneventfully

Here's gorgeous girl back on the lane approaching home


And this one really brings home why it's imperative to wear fluoro gear - this was lunchtime on a bright winters day.....in a car you'd barely see her next to the trees until it was too late :-$