in the beginning...

...I would get one good day for every 4 bad ones with Kiki. I braced myself every moment for impending bad behavior and she rarely let me down...often surpassing my worst nightmare. But, we've made progress, and one of the beautiful things about working with her all these months is that now, while she may offer up a day of bad behavior, it's generally book-ended by several days (sometimes weeks) of I'm-trying-my-best-to-please-you behavior. So, despite her antics Thursday night, where a 20 degree drop in temperature paired with a ghost town feeling at the barn led to her nearly running me over several times and spookiness that only a 2 year old racehorse might possess...I arrived to a perfectly calm, happy mare yesterday. The weather was beautiful and she couldn't have been more quiet. A nice reminder that her recovery is much faster than when we first met and than I should learn to count on it.

We had a fantastic ride, beautiful canter departs with ZERO fussiness and some of the best trot work we've had to date. I actually felt myself focusing on MY riding, rather than just training her. The new saddle has helped free up her back and she is 1000 times more relaxed. I rode her in the new fly bonnet, and as you will see from the photos, she didn't bat an eye. She did fuss a little when we cantered and she could feel it flapping on her forehead, but otherwise she was perfectly content, and I think she seemed a lot less worried about flies. Mission accomplished.