Yesterday we did our same round pen lunging, but with real tack on. I wanted her to get used to the feeling of stirrups banging on her sides. She's worn a saddle before, but in the past when I saw her be lunged with the stirrups down it greatly bothered her. She still gets a bit nervous whenever things are at her side that she can't see - myself included - and this is something I want to rectify before I even attempt to get on her. Having the stirrups pulled down spooks her more than anything I've seen this far, which is a rather large problem. Having her spook away from me while I'm trying to mount her because the stirrup leather snapped and scared her would just... not be good.
After a good thorough brush down (as much as I love grays... they get so bloody dirty) I checked my saddle on her (perfect fit... imagine that), fit my bridle to her head, all of which she was an absolute champ for. No flinching, snorting, stepping away unless I asked her to (which now only takes a gentle touch of your hand rather than having to throw your whole body against her) or general upset from her at all. I was so proud, and shoved carrots in her face any time she did anything I even remotely liked.
She's so cute. Even with her satellite dish ears.
I had tried my raised noseband on her, but as all my tack has been bought at one point or another for either a thoroughbred or a small thoroughbred warmblood cross, it didn't fit, and I had to put her in my figure eight. I prefer these nosebands anyway, as I much prefer the freedom through the jaw for them to chew and move the bit, but I hadn't wanted to introduce anything so new just yet. Thankfully, it didn't seem to bother her in the least. She allowed me to buckle it around her face, fuss with all the straps, and stood like a large gray statue, only occasionally looking at me to beg for a treat. The noseband I have was bought as a single piece (rather than part of a whole bridle), and Pessoa makes their nosebands so bloody big it's even large on her, despite being a large warmblood. If you ever decide to buy one of their bridles... make sure to try it on before removing tags or anything. They're stupid big.
But damn, does she ever look good in my tack.
The lunging consisted of much of the same, working on walking quietly away from me, long, low, and stretchy. I make sure to take everything one very small step at a time with her because of her trust issues. E-line horses have quite the brain on them (horses by the stud Escudo, for those of you out there that don't know what I'm referring to there) and I am very over cautious to make sure that I do NOTHING that she could take negatively. Mares especially from this line have a tendency to not forget wrongs that have been done to them. A cousin of Ellie's for example, E'toufee, was flipped over when she was young. She has never forgotten it, and was ruined for riding. Once she decided she was done, that was it. Done. I don't want anything like that to happen with Ellie, so I've been very careful with everything I do with her. One new thing a day, unless she seems to be taking everything very well, in which case I will introduce one more, and so on.
Having the stirrups pulled down on my saddle made her spook away from me a bit, so I took a few minutes to gently snap the stirrup leathers against the saddle. I didn't do this nearly as roughly as I could have, as it seemed to be scaring her quite a bit. I did it a little on both sides, crooning and petting her the whole time. This will be the next continuing project. We did our lunge work, walking and trotting in both directions, and called it a day in the pen.
To the left to the left -
To the right to the right!
(Also, I apologize for persistent text sounds in both videos.)
This was early on in the lunge session, as you can see I hadn't pulled the stirrups down yet. I wanted to see how she reacted to the saddle in general first.
I had tried pulling her mane once before, and she hadn't seemed too overly bothered; more curious as to what I was up to. It was too cold to hose her off, so while I waited for the little bit of sweat to dry so I could brush her down, I tried doing a bit more. To my complete surprise, she allowed me to with little fuss. I hate pulling manes with a passion (I get bored and I'm so OCD that I end up taking forever), but as she was being so good I did more than I initially intended, and got about half her mane pulled. It looks SO much better. I'm no pro, but when my horse is nice and quiet I can usually do a halfway decent job. I'll let you be the judge.
Half pulled mane. More like 3/4 now that I look at it.
Today, like I mentioned early on in the post, my poor mare was overly worried about something. This was the worst I'd seen her next to the first day I met her. I'm not sure if it was the change in temperature (it was in the 50's yesterday, and in the high 70's today), something was bothering her out in the paddock, if I smelled different, I'm not sure. She flinched at every brush, spooked at the saddle pad, snorted all the way to the round pen, and even lept away from me at one point when one of the stirrups bumped her side. She did settle down and go to work after just a few minutes, but once we were done, she was still worried. I didn't do much different today, especially considering how upset she was. Instead of trying long lines I opted to just lunge her in side reins. I didn't want her to get more upset by something she is already distrustful of (ropes) on a day when I can't seem to figure out what's got her so bothered. We worked in both directions, lunging with side reins and working for longer than normal since she's going to have the day off tomorrow.
Video from today, not much different from yesterday's.
After work she got a bath, which in itself is nothing special to write about, except that after, when back in her paddock (and still soaking wet) she did this to me:
*sigh* That's going to be a nightmare to clean.
Oy. Horses... why do we love them?
Tomorrow we're off to see another farm, so she's going to have the day off. See you on Thursday.
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