Bridleless: Second session

  Like the night before, I saddled up my mare. She was feeling pretty good and it took me a few minutes to get her attention on schooling. We rode large circles in the pasture out behind the house. It's a great space to drill her and gives her a change of scenery apart from the excercise pen. I started out by trotting big circles to looses her up, then loping larger circles. A rule of thumb I try to remember is, trot for stamina and lope for lungs. It's still quite hot even at 7 pm, so loping to long is not an option. After getting her attention, we began the bridleless session. She is picking it up real well. Repeating the drill of circling large circles with leg pressure both directions. I've noticed it doesn't take much effort to get her to turn around now. I squeeze once and she reponds immediately. I worked on her stop more last night. Paying close attention to where I sit in the saddle and making sure I ride her loosely to a stop. It's really hard not to tense up, but I'm trying real hard and letting my body relax into the stop. There's that muscle memory thing!

Doesn't she look pretty?

Having gotten ready for school, Makayla is looking especially tall for a 12 year old. I haven't measured her in awhile. That's going to be on my next agenda. I have the usual beginning of school things to fill. She starts at 6am in the morning. Her morning duties include:

1. Rising at 6 am.
2. Getting dressed.
3. Making her bed and picking up her room.
4. Feed her horse and dog.
5. Eating breakfast.
6. Brushing her teeth and hair.

I don't think that's to much responsibility for her at this age. After all, if she wants certain things, she has to take care of them. She's such a big help to us with other things also. Never complaining for the most part.