Mezza work continues....

I've been lax in my updates, but Dawn has been faithfully trailering Mezza to the Equestrian Center nearly every Sunday since early spring so that we can work together.

We practice our groundwork, trailer loading (working on backing out of the trailer), long lining, ground driving, water crossing.....yikes, lots of stuff!

Here are several pics showing highlights of this spring and summer. I am so proud of her!

I am looking forward to working on ponying her off of her dam, Luna, in the near future and continuing with her ground driving work so that we can drive her out of the round pen and eventually along the path around the Equestrian Center. She is starting to grow her withers up, and get some more height, but at 3 years and 3 months there is still plenty of time to practice while she continues to grow and get ready for riding! : )

Long lining

getting used to water

Dawn and Mezza practice in the trailer

Polly helping with part of desensitizing Mezza for sitting on her

The other side...

From above...

Mezza's first show!

It's July 15, I'm up at 5 a.m. getting ready (read coffee in hand) and then heading out to the barn to have Mezza ready when Dawn arrives with the trailer.

We'd spent the previous day giving Mezza her first official bath (one that wasn't just water). Yesterday she was wonderful about standing for the bath, although you could tell she thought the conditioner after the shampoo was taking too long!

So this morning I stalked her, and practiced a few in-hand moves (turns and backing) for show prep. Then I took her to the tie rail and undid all the bands from her mane and unbraided and fluffed her tail.

I'd dug out the hand razor we always use on Hoss and Scout--and shaved off her whiskers. She'd been great about the clippers around her fetlocks, but we'd only practiced near her ears and face, so I cleaned those up with no problem.

I only cleaned her hooves and brushed her until we got to the Equestrian Center, since dust would stick to the show shine once it was applied to her hooves.

She loaded up on the trailer this time like a pro, and had her first ride alone. Once there we let her eat while Dawn registered and I finished beautifying her. Dawn's daughter, Jen arrived just in time, and we changed out Mezza's halter for the pretty show version.

I think both Mezza and I were in a trance for the halter show--it was a wonderful learning experience--she was well mannered around us and the other horses before going in, but we both froze a bit--she didn't want to trot, and I forgot to set her up for the judge!  Ouch!!

Before I took her in for Showmanship, we did a "review". I asked for something, and I wanted a "try". So we went through each turn, the back, and the trot separately.

Mezza did a good job with me in Showmanship. There is still tons to improve on. There were about 13 of us, Mezza and I didn't place, but that was not the point. We figured out we both can have stage fright, and that we just need to refresh. I thought she did great, and we ended with her loading up beautifully again to go home!

The point I take home is we're not working for the show, we're preparing for life, and this is one part of it. Thank you Dawn and Jen for taking the time to make this possible!

There's plenty to practice on always.

Old and new

This evening was cool--what a joy!  I stalked Mezza in the round pen and then we did some in-hand work on turns and backing before going down to the indoor for tacking up.

Once tacked up with the saddle, I had Mezza do some walk trot on a short rope in the halter, then asked her to stand while I did some review of desensitization with the rope hitting the saddle on each side.  She did well with that, so I put her in her side pull, and had her longe on a long line both directions at walk and trot over poles. We followed that by adding the rope to the second side, and I long lined her around the indoor arena. Her turns are getting better each time.

We finished by de-tacking and doing some neck bends. On the way back to the pen we practiced out trotting at side (no flat halter/chain). It was a good time!

A good Friday!

Mezza and I worked in the round pen on stalking today, walking and trotting in-hand, before going to the barn to work in the stall.

Today's stalking went really smoothly--Mezza circled me 3 or 4 times at an easy lope before she started to look at me. I had her continue on a couple laps, she can get high headed when I don't let her come in when she asks, but this time she simply tried to circle closer and I pushed her out and kept her going a few more laps and then stepped forward and back--she sucked right in and we stood facing each other and I pointed and wiggled the tip of the whip and she headed out in the correct direction. Asking for her to come in and turn with her left eye on me was no sweat, asking for her to step in and then turn from the right eye still takes two tries most of the time. After about 3 turns she is trotting, watching me, and she was really relaxed, except with the turns from the right, where she initially stops, doesn't turn in toward me when I step out and back, but tries to run past without turning, so I make her continue and try again. It was taking two tries, but the last one was really good, so I let her just stop and stand, and the she walked right in very calm.

We practiced our turns on hinds, fores, backing and then her walking and "whoaing" and trotting at side. This is all coming along pretty nicely.

After that we headed into the barn where Mezza and I walked in and out (forward) of the stall with the higher step several times before going to the stall with almost no step to practice backing. We still went in and out forward a couple of times, then worked on coming part way in, standing with the fronts in, then backing out. Finally we worked on coming in completely, standing (almost invariably she'd come in and as soon as her hinds were in she'd swing them! She therefore got a lot of practice with partial turns on the fores so she'd like up straight. I found it easier to practice asking for one or two steps back and then stop her when they were good backing steps so I could rub her. Then I'd ask her to step forward (towards me at the back of the stall) and we'd practice again. When the steps back got less crooked, then I stopped asking her to move forward and simply gave her a rest and a rub after one or two steps. We completed 3 backs out of the stall. It probably took us at least 20 minutes. I am really proud of her! That was all for her for the day.