Easy Sunday Morning

Whisper was a gem, as perfect as she could be, setting the stage for a wonderful Sunday morning with the horses. Maybe leaving the break-away halters on, skipping our awkward horse catching dance made the difference. Maybe she was mellow sensing some weather more to her liking on the way. Maybe she was just worked down from being handled so much yesterday, who knows.

She played with me (with manners) during grooming. She kept all ugly faces to herself during girthing. And on our warm-up walk she was glued to me like a sweet puppy dog often relaxing her neck.

Each of us feeling comfortable with the other, all systems were go for riding. I used the milk crate to mount with no issue, though the padding I worked a few hours to perfect fell off as I moved the crate *sigh*. She moved away once my butt was firmly planted into saddle leather, something time training will help, but Whisper was steady for mounting.

Her stride was lively and Chris, holding my safety back-up leadline, had a hard time at points keeping up on the hilly terrain. Whisper got spooky twice and her back hollowed while her feet danced, but she was still easy to keep a seat on, at least while I had a ground handler. I gripped mostly with my knees as I kept the lower leg off of her and used my voice to ask for forward motion. This felt the most natural with her body type and motion of gait.

We had a small milestone when I asked her to remain still for a few minutes on my own control while Chris was cleaning up the treats that Promise stealthily opened and was helping herself to. (Add opening ziploc topped treat bags to the list of "Things Promise Can Do On Her Own") Granted it was near the hitching post where she is used to standing still for me, still I'm marking it a successful practice. The ride was wonderful but short lived. Tristan was not content this morning watching Mom ride and his displeasure was causing ours.

Whisper and I had some more bonding time as she sought out my hands. Not the pushy "you are my scratching post human" kind of way, but more the accepting that I was safe and touch was appreciated way. At least, that's how I'm choosing to take it. Starting with some good wither scratching that she responded to by stretching her neck to full length, no more than knee high, and yawning big donkey yawns. Moving up to the neck scritches along her mane and ending with a good solid head scratch.

Promise, the treat thieving pony, was not as well mannered this visit. She offered quite a few raised hind legs at any careful grooming beyond her second to last rib, but she was also fine with a head-on approach for head scratches a few times while Chris tried to entertain 3 small people who were not feeling the horse love today.