Lots of Fun and Play!

The last couple of sessions with Duck have been very fun! The other day when we played we tried driving with 2 reins for the first time ever! I had two 22 ft lines, and had them through loose loops on the bareback pad so they wouldn't be so heavy to carry, but would come out if needed. It took a little while but she seemed to get the hang of it. We drove from the pasture down to the arena. Got tangled after my loop came undone, started over and then went in and around the arena a couple of times. I then decided to drive her down to the play area by the pond and it went fairly well once I got her going!

I haven't had the opportunity recently to play for a long period of time. Yesterday I had an hour and was going to ride, but when I got there Duck was a shedding disaster! Hair everywhere! So instead, she grazed the hayfield and I curried and groomed for almost an hour! The hair never really quit, I just did. After that I had about 20 minutes left so Duck got a partial massage. (yeah she is WAY more pampered than me! LOL) She has some soreness in her back but it is hard to know exactly why. My farrier did notice that she was tighter than usual which made me realize I need to get back into a regular stretching routine as well. So I worked some points out of her back and stretched her legs and neck.

Today was a really fun day! I got there and we tacked up while she was in her stall. Brought 2 carrot sticks, a string, a 22ft line, hackamore, and her new confidence snaffle. We headed down to the arena to drop off some stuff and then I realized I could hopefully do all that I had wanted to for the session in the grassy play area by the pond. So we went down and played on the 22ft line. We have been having squeeze issues recently, more specifically with the bridge (which I think had to do with her confidence being lost when she fell off the bridge and scraped her leg way back when) so I decided to focus on squeeze game for awhile. When I realized we were having issues was last week when I asked her to come up to the bridge so I could get on, and she wanted nothing to do with it!
We started with the pedestal, first getting 2 feet, then all 4 on the pedestal. (Can you say, "cookie, please?")
Then we went to the bridge. After several tries she got her front feet up most of the ramp and I am considering that a success for the day!
We also played with the new telephone pole circling and maintaining gait at the trot. An interesting thing happened in that she kept wanting to canter after going over the pole. I have been wanting her to canter so I allowed it. First she only cantered a stride, the next time around all the way around and over the pole again. When she got over the pole she went fast and then stopped turned and faced and then backed up. This is a trick that she has been trying since a couple weeks ago. She did it when I was asking her for the canter. Today I let her drift (and it was a lot backwards) and then I just quit circling and we went on to practicing sideways.
Recently I have been trying to practice our sideways over stuff like ground poles, the new pole, and one barrel. It is not as easy as it looks! Duck is still wanting to go forward enough to get over the obstacle completely. Today while going to the right (her harder direction) I took it really, really slow but did almost the whole length of the telephone pole. 1-2 steps at a time and we made it! Yeah!
Moving on to riding I started with the hackamore and rode in the play area. Got over to the pedestal and did 2 feet and then doing it again we got all 4 up there! That was our first time getting all 4 feet up while riding!
Did the sideways thing over the log, just the last couple feet of it. She really wants to come forward while I am riding. Then we went to the bridge and she put one foot on the bridge so that was good.
Then since I need to practice freestyle carrot stick riding with 2 sticks I tied up my reins and rode with just 2 carrot sticks out in the open by the pond still. That was a first for us! The bowtie pattern at a trot and walk (mostly), some sideways with the fence, 2 feet on the pedestal, etc.
On the bowtie pattern she kept wanting to canter the direction of home, and did. I was proud that I didn't grab the reins right away and was able to stop her with my body and the sticks. We did some yo-yo's while on the bowtie pattern and got some more whoa happening!
And for one more thing in our busy fun day I put the reins on the bridle. This was only the 3rd time I had done this. We were back in the arena for this, and just played with the fluidity rein on the circle to the left to which she did some real nice blowing and breathing with a some longitudinal stretching!
We ended our day with me spraying her in the wash stall. Once while I was riding in the arena she was pawing and acting like she wanted to roll. I took the saddle off in the arena after I was done and she didn't roll. I then sprayed her with what turned out to be HOT water. Someone had hooked the hose up to just the hot side on the water, and I thought it was the cold side. Why would someone do that? Good thing I caught it before it got too hot! We went back to the arena and I was trying to get her to roll, pawing the ground myself etc. I have thought that she was totally too unconfident to roll around me which may still be the case, but after I pawed the ground and circled, she did a bit too, and I just sat down. She waited a bit, took a few steps, rolled (and flipped all the way over and back) and then got up real quick. But she did roll with me there!
This is why I don't blog so often. When I do, it is so long and boring that no one is possibly going to want to read it all. I am too long winded when writing. I guess I need to play with having more short, interesting and effective blogs....
Well for now, that is all.