Miss Mocha has decided it’s springtime. For whatever reason, that seems to mean that we are having battles. Tremendous breakthroughs at the same time…but also battles under saddle.
Today, she decided that the half-open arena side door was Going To Eat Horses. But since she’s supposed to be a broke, finished horse, the spook consisted of a lovely two-track by the offending door. When correction happened, it was an even better sidepass at the trot. Correction, at the moment, being a whip since I’ve been working on my hips and didn’t want to worry about my heels.
Eventually, I prevailed. But we had to revisit the same battle several times.
But!
She did some lovely two-tracks at the lope (not quite so by the Damned Door, geez, you’d think it’d be good for something!). A wee bit of fuss at the counter-canter, but still reasonably NBD.
And!
Half-pass on the diagonal at the canter. In both directions. Not pretty, not perfect…but this afternoon, after all the outside bend, the counter-canter work, and Everything Else, she decided that Maybe She Could Do It. After the second one, I dropped the reins on her neck, let her do a few circuits of the arena at a canter on a long rein, then took her outside.
Outside, she got barked at by an aggressive shorthaired pointer on a chain (raised her head, looked intensely but didn’t hesitate or swerve). Then a flock of mourning doves flew up almost under her nose, not all at once but in sets of two or three, in a succession of five flights, and she never flicked an ear.
Oh, mare.
(I ruefully shake my head.)
