A long day with an early start and Kitty May would have been happy to start straight away. Nettles, on the other hoof, was keen to stay in bed.
Jack is going through his roan stage and will soon be back to his usual biscuity self.
Peechay is also going through his roan stage. When we arrived at Nicki's he said he was definitely having a lie in.
Although Maverick looked good and seemed calm in this Western saddle, as soon as he was in the bigger field he reacted quite badly to it and Nicki had to get off pretty sharpish. Maverick has always been worried about rugs and seemed to think that this came within that category. We were so glad that we had been fairly cautious about introducing it.
Once he was back in his English saddle he relaxed straight away, coping with this massive timber lorry passing him and then continuing to work very nicely. Any thoughts of him being a cowboy horse (even if he would have been an Indian one) will have to be put to one side at least for now until he is much more confident. It just proves that you cannot take anything for granted.
Starting to back up softly...
...and then relaxing even more.
2.5.14: "I've not ridden much in the last week but what I have done has been very good. There have been no adverse effects from the saddle incident, so that is good. I took Maverick in the big field again for some schooling the other day and he was very attentive. He just got on with things straight away. We did some pole work and walked and trotted nice big circles. He was nice and consistent in the pace and he was also quiet rounded in the turn to the poles. His halt and back up is beautiful and he softened a lot easier... I went out for a walk this morning and my friend mentioned how much better we both were :-) I had to manoeuvre through a gateway and used my legs to direct his bottom. He is being such a good boy. Another strange thing that has been happening is that he has been so much more loving in the field. He normally keeps himself to himself and I go to him in the evenings to say goodnight but lately he will look up at me and if I hug him,he will hug me back with his head over my shoulder. A couple of times I have had join up with him where I will walk towards him, turn my shoulders and lower my head and he starts to follow me :-) another time he came up to me and started playing with the zip tag on my coat and pulling it down. He has never been like that in all the time I have had him. It's like he is starting to come out of his shell a bit now which is really lovely." N. O'M
Kitty May wore a saddle for the first time today and was absolutely fine.
Later she went out for a walk and had a good look around this big lorry which had its engine running.
Another little pootle home, this time bareback. Owner Jackie is very pleased with her progress.
