It's The Little Things :)

I went back home last weekend and finally got some pony time in with my girls :) Friday afternoon I whistled and leaned on the fence, and Cheyenne cantered over to see me!! Six weeks was entirely too long to be apart, even for her :) Gweny was the second one over, and we just sat there and had a little love fest. Their feet were a little long when I got there, so I wasn't able to really do much with them until Sunday after the farrier came. It worked out well, since Saturday I ran in the Run or Dye 5K!! If you haven't ran one of these yet, you definitely need to check it out!

Sunday morning Ryan, our fabulous farrier, came and saved the day, and the girls were ready to boogy! Cheyenne (as always) insisted on playing first. She still isn't used to having to share her human, even though I've been playing with Gweny for quite some time now. I always like to see how little I can do with her after a long break. And Chey always impresses me. We could do walk/stop/back and walk/trot trot/walk transitions without having to touch the reins :) I was so proud! We just played around after that, and I introduced the first step of the Spanish walk on the ground. She really gives 110% with everything she does, which is such a great perk of an RBE. Yes they may be flighty and spooky when they see a leaf wiggle three miles away, but they really put their heart and soul in whatever you ask them to do.

Smiles from my bay-bies!!

Gweny, on the other hand, is an LBI and has a very definite "why should I do that?" outlook. Her and I have come a long ways, and she has gotten fairly willing on the ground. We did our OL warm ups, and even though I got some sour faces when she was asked to trot, she was really on cue after not being played with for a while. I hopped on, and she had a lot more forward than normal! Our second ride in a row when I didn't have to convince her that taking two steps wouldn't kill her. She started out really willing to trot, and even offered it once or twice, however after a few straight trotting lines, she became resistant. Maybe because we repeated it too much? I'm not sure, but we worked through it and no matter how few trot strides she offered she got a release, and she eventually decided it was ok again. 

Things were going well, and I decided it was time to introduce the HQ/FQ yield from her back. She did not agree. FQ was ok, but we had done a little of this before so I wasn't too shocked. HQ, however, turned out to be a little bit of a battle. When Gwen doesn't understand something, she throws a fit. And when Gweny throws a fit, she goes right to the extreme. She knows how to yield her HQ from the ground like a champ, but she didn't translate the cues once I was on her back. She pinned her ears, that didn't work, and then she reached back to bite my leg. This was a first! She was gentle, her top teeth just barely made contact, but she definitely made her point. My first instinct was to poke her cheek when she moved back with matched energy. It wasn't hard, and I was really proud of myself for staying centered emotionally. Pat says to take it as feedback, not personally. It was just enough to let her know that wasn't the right answer. I learned in the beginning that the key with her is persistence, no matter what sort of fit she throws, and she will eventually engage her brain instead of react and figure out what is being asked of her. She reached back to bite again, but this time I was expecting it and she got her cheek poke before she made it half way to my leg. I kept cuing, and she finally crossed her right back hind over her left hind. Wa-la! We had a HQ yield! I got two more nice yields, switched sides, and called it good.

I took her out to the back yard to work a knot of out of her mane, and Cheyenne was not amused. She kept looking over the fence, trying to use her Jedi pony powers to will me back and come get her instead. 

We took a walk around the yard to a downed tree that fell victim to a wind storm. I sent Gweny over it to think about foot placement in preparation for one day riding in the mountains, with hopes she would take it upon herself to jump it. After a few times over, she took a half leap! She was starting to get into it, but I only had my 12' line and wanted to see what she would do if she really had a chance to set herself up for the jump. We got a running start and she soared!! Zero resistance, all heart! She over jumped it by a mile, I'm sure just out of inexperience, but that was a huge mile stone for us :) We did it two more times and ended on that amazing note :) 

She had a wonderful expression on her face, and I couldn't have asked for more. I just chilled in the pasture afterwards and had some downtime scratching and loving on the girls before I called it a night. I am so grateful to have two such amazing horses in my life :)