Svenna the trail mare!

After living through the first exam, I decided I deserved to have some much needed pony time! We ventured out on the trail with a friend of ours, with her on her very steady horse. The friend, however, is extremely nervous anyway, so we didn't make it far the first day. It was actually ok, all things considered, because Svenna really has done no "suburban" trail riding. She has spend a fair amount of time out in the mountains, but our trails are full of bikers, joggers, strollers, dogs, and the dreaded roller skaters! We even ran into a llama pulling a cart one day! Much different than trees, trees, and more trees, which is what she's used to.

Proof that there is occasionally sun in October

But despite all the hustle and bustle she was really well behaved, which really is no surprise. She just seems to take everything in stride. We went out for a much longer trail again yesterday with a different duo, a 17 hh WBx out for his first trail, and Svenna was a very good security blanket. And she kept up fine, which actually did surprise me! I thought I'd be trotting to catch up the whole time.

She's also been making a lot of progress in the ring, learning to bend that giant thick neck and relax her jaw. She's pretty darn athletic for her type, and I'm excited to introduce her to jumping. She has such a quick mind that I think she'll love it. We've been trotting over poles on the ground, and while she's a bit wiggly (which she is all the time if I'm honest) she always goes right over and doesn't try to evade too much. She's starting to get the hang of going sideways at the walk, and learning to differentiate when I'm asking her to move her haunches vs shoulder. Moving her body parts independently is going to be a huge step for her, as she tends to have the sort of tight, stiff, thick little pony body that wants to just careen around on the forehand.

Back to gray days in the PNW 

The canter is our biggest project at this point, and I'm basically happy with her if she picks up the right lead in a reasonable amount of time and keeps cantering until I ask her to stop. I throw in a few circles, but she is a horrible drifter. She was always ridden on the rail I suspect, because she does not know what to do with herself when she's not glued to it. But as long as I keep my whip in the outside hand, I don't have tooooo many problems with her diving back to the rail, but god forbid I forget me whip! I think that a lot of the "misbehavior" at the canter will resolve itself as she gets stronger/more coordinated/more comfortable in the gait. All in all, I am totally smitten with her, and she has been too much fun so far!

Also, I'll hopefully have a big Sid update in the next few days...keep your fingers crossed for me!