Bella continued with her education today and came out on a hack with Theoden and Petra. She led so well and was no trouble at all - we even managed to turn right! With both horses inclined to kick each other when they first met in the field it was important to keep both of them under reasonable control so that neither would set the other off in such close quarters. They were fine.
In the inclosure the track can get a bit narrow but out on the open forest we've got plenty of space.
Control can be a loaded word in horsemanship terms but I think it is important to have just a few rules or 'musts'. A few weeks ago Spirit was somewhat upset by a farrier and since then she has been on strike about having her feet picked up. Her instinctive (automatic and non-thinking) reaction is to go 'into-pressure' with her shoulder and to bite her handler This was proving to be effective postponing behaviour. I needed to make it clear that that behaviour wasn't acceptable without turning it into a real confrontation. Accordingly I used body language to say 'don't bite me' and to discourage her from leaning on me. The results were pretty immediate.
That enabled me to make it very clear when she has got it right too.
