What an awesome day! Lindsay has most definitely proved herself to be incredibly responsive and super smart. She really digested what we did yesterday and was ready for today. She was awesome joining up...awesome with the saddle...no buck at all :)
I even put a bridle on her today. She did think that was odd at first...can't blame her, It's not really natural to carry metal in your mouth. Honestly I'm not sure how much I'll even use a bit, I love how responsive she is over cues on her nose and jaw...we will see. But we do need to be accustomed to the bit. I used a smooth french link snaffle...my favorite bit because it curves around their mouth and does not pinch at all :) I started by sliding my fingers in the sides of her mouth which she thought tasted really nasty...they probably did..hehehe, but she dealt with it. After a few times she was opening her mouth easily and I quietly slid the snaffle in her mouth. She of course did her best to spit it out, but it wasn't going anywhere. She actually dropped a good bit of her Senior feed out of her mouth which just made me cringe...I've been desperately trying to get her to eat these concentrates and now she finally has and I go and make her drop it out of her mouth! Oh well, at least she is eating it now :) She really only chewed on the bit for a little while, maybe 15 minutes. I never touched it or pulled on it at all, just want her to be comfortable with it being there...and she appears to be!
We then ground drove a bit and Wow it was Awesome!!! She is so incredibly light and responsive as soon as she understand what I'm asking for. No kicks out at the line by her hocks at all today! I really was expecting at least a little kick, but she was perfect! She was even much more relaxed about me changing direction behind her, still got a bit tense as I would "Disappear" momentarily, but she seemed to now realize that as soon as I disappeared from one side I would quickly emerge on the other :) She even started turning her head to look for me to show up on the new side! We practiced stopping and changing speed and turning a bit. She has the most beautiful self carriage. She carries her body so round and "connected" Just looking at her stand there you'd think she looked a bit down hill, like a classic stock type QH, but as soon as she takes a step it is like her feet are magically lifted and her front end becomes very light. Goodness I'm so excited to sit on her!!!
After ground driving we worked on backing a bit more, she is picking up on that wonderfully. It is not something I've stressed thus far to much because most of the time I'm talking her into approaching me, not moving away from me. She is picking up on it really quickly though. I can tell she is going to have a very quality back to her, the way she naturally wants to round herself and drop her head...I love that kind of back in a horse, free and fluid...it's coming for sure.
I fly sprayed her today for the first time and she was a pro, a bit tense, but didn't move at all. She let me spray all under her belly and between her back legs...I had been dieing to do that, the sand gnats appear at dusk :( I then show sheened her tail and got it brushed out really really good. Up until now she's been nervous with me behind her like that, but the ground driving has really helped her with that a lot. That tail of hers is super thick! It really wasn't all that knotted up either...I don't know how, seeing as it's never been touched...must be good Mustang genes....
After all that primping I even picked up her feet! First time ever! I've been touching her legs, but not asked her to pick them up. She was exceptionally good. I didn't ask her to hold them up long. I did my best to pick them up and put them down before she tried to take a foot away from me. That is a Huge pet peeve of mine, when a horse just snatches their foot away when ever they feel like it...it's so hard, once they know they can, to ever convince them that they can't...because in all honesty...they can if they really want to. Their 1000 pounds can out "muscle" any human any day (be it a 100 or 300 pound human :) So I want to do my best to convince her that is not an option, so far so good. I even picked out her front feet and Wow is that neat to see how they looked untouched. Really Really Really good as a matter of fact! One thing that was definitely different is her toe callous. That portion of her sole between the point of frog and toe of her hoof wall was very thick and actually protrudes further than the rest of her hoof...ie it would make ground contact first if the foot was to land totally flat, which of course it lands heel first because she has such sound hooves :) I am sure all that added callous and thickness offers lots of protection that our domestic horses sometimes lack. I would love to see radiographs of her coffin bone, I bet there is plenty of sole depth there for sure. And hoof walls! Talk about THICK...all the way around too, her toe area all the way through her quarters and heel had relatively even thickness, a good 1/4" or more thick all the way around! Very rounded too, but not boxed off in the front. The only thing I plan to adjust ...when she's ready...is the lateral balance a bit. Her inside hoof wall is a hair taller than the outside... Similar to a sheared heel, but it is NOT sheared at all. The heels are even, just the hoof wall is a wee bit taller on the inside. I sure will not be doing anything drastic, I want to do all I can to retain the integrity of her fine tuned wheels! They have served her just fine as is, she is sound and even on her four corners as can be...she certainly doesn't need me making un-necessary modifications just to please my "eye" I'll just tweak a tiny bit :)
So it was just a good, good day...oh I even stood on the stool beside her and put weight in the saddle, again she was a star!!!
So thankful to be on this journey and so thankful Lindsay is not going anywhere! The first thing that drew me to this "Supreme Extreme" over the other Extreme Makeovers was that we adopted our horses up front. (The others are adopted after the 100 days) I just don't know how I would handle 100 days with one and have to let them go in the end :(
Excited to see what Lindsay tells me tomorrow!
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