Night Ride

Not much media because it was night time, but I took advantage of Hazel falling asleep early (she didn't nap while I was gone yesterday) and escaped to the barn for solo chores.

From the morning. She heard me on the deck and is always VERY attentive to what I'm doing outside :)  It's my favorite part of having her in my backyard.

"Hi Mom! I see you! Do you have treats? Oh, you're going back inside? That's a shame..."

Now, Hazel didn't stay asleep but that wasn't my problem, have fun hubby! (They watched Blue Planet II)

Lit by the arena lights

I lunged her first and she was up but not out of control so again I kept it short and hopped on. I worked mostly on myself and being balanced.

I tried to ask for canter and she started snaking back and biting at her girth, both directions. This is infrequent but I did wonder if something was bothering her (for future reference, I used an old purple dover pad and maybe how the girth was laying on it was not comfortable? If it happens again I'll see if that's a common element) she's normally pretty unflappable.

So I pulled the saddle off and hopped back on bareback :D Aside from the shedding horse hair poking through my pants, it was a nice ride. We did about a mile in the arena, working out to 30 minutes of mostly walking but LOTS of transitions and geometry. I wanted myself to be really responsive with contact.

I had treats in my pocket, along with a clicker. Peppermints and ginger snaps. Gwyn now expects a treat every time I say good girl. I've probably said it often enough she associates it more with a treat than the click. On a more positive note, now that I'm carrying pocket treats, she's not walking off with me after I mount up on her.

I want to start clicker training Saffron and the ginger snaps and peppermint candies seem to be the trick. The storebought horse treats weren't interesting to her but she willingly left her alfalfa to get more ginger snaps from me last night. I do need to desensitize her to the click as she flinches a lot if I use it. Poor thing :( What did humans do to you?

Silly donkey did try and eat my saddle while it was hanging out on the gate. She is a curious and nosy thing! I never expected to love her as much as I do.