progress!

I rode my horse! She was really good! No bucks even after a whole month of not riding and we did some walk and trot and canter! Trot work over poles with one raised cavaletti and we did a lot of trotting over poles between standards.

We did have major issues bridling. She flipped out when I tried to put the reins over her head, ended up pulling back on the trailer a few times, yay for a good halter and a quick release knot. I let her pull it til she gave up, then untied her and made her stand next to the trailer while I worked with her. She really had a hard time with it going over the off ear unless I petted her with my hand first. Then unbridling she flipped as I was pulling the headstall (my brand new 'eventing' headstall!!) off and swung it around by the reins still around her neck as she careened around. All I could see was it catching on her front legs and snapping in a million pieces. Thankfully she kept shying away from it and I caught her. She thumped her teeth with the bit pretty bad and I just didn't have time to get the bridle back on her and take it off a bunch of times. I don't really even know how to accomplish this without the danger that she'll knock her teeth again either. I'll have to work more on desensitizing her face since the whole hole in her head thing's made her headshy, obviously.

Lots more to work on, but definitely some progress. I was expecting a nutso horse and I got a very rideable and under control mare... nice surprises are nice sometimes!

Goals: Ride every possible moment! More work on the anti-headshy front, maybe plastic baggies?