Wednesday & Thursday

Missy - no change, Thursday the milk was watery so I am now leaning to false pregnancy. I resumed her training just sticking to light in hand/suppling work. Will continue to monitor. I changed her to a snaffle tonight to see if I can get her lighter and more responsive. She likes to just lay on the sidepull. She took the snaffle well and I worked on suppling her to the bit. We continued to work on lateral body control with hip and shoulder over exercises. She is becoming quite light to those cues but continues to fight and brace against rein control. Will continue to work on this issue.

Kixsie - A miracle - she is trotting 90% sound. I guess it was just a bruise and the soaking worked. Whew! I will still watch the hoof closely and work on soft ground only. I saddled her tonight and she showed some apprehension, but did not spook or act up. The apprehension increased drastically when I tightened the girth. I calmed her down and snugged the girth up slowly, attached the breast collar, walked her, snugged some more, walked. She soon began to relax and chew, but every time I stopped to check the girth, she would tense up. After saddling, she seemed relieved when we walked out to the arena. I began by asking her to lunge in a large circle. Just like last time, she snaked her head and braced against the line. Unlike last time, she did not rush and remained focused. She responded better to cues for direction/gait changes. She did not loose all of her "snottiness" but did work much better than last time and since I was worried about her hoof, I quit lunging after on 5-10 minutes at walk/trot. I then worked with her on some in hand/suppling work which she did fantastic. Very light and supple to rein cues and much better on the hips over. I noticed, however, that whenever I placed my body in a position near the saddle, the mares body would show alot of tension. I worked to lessen this by reassuring her and just moving around the saddle. I wanted to keep this lesson short, so we called it quits on tonight. Tomorrow I plan on mounting and going out on a light trail ride.