The Third Week with Mezza...

Lots of good things are happening, little by little. I have been taking advantage of the heifer pen as much as possible, since today the heifers left for the high country : (

When not muddy, Mezza and I have been hand walking in the heifer pen; doing ground work in there, and then doing mounted work. She has been learning she can move the 3 heifers, who are quite gentle.

In hand...

Waiting for action...

Ah ha...let's watch it!

Riding around and past the 'girls'

Hanging out and watching

We also reviewed the trailer a few days ago, since she had been somewhat uptight about it the day she arrived. We literally spent an hour practicing loading and unloading, with short walks and breaks in between. At the end, she simply relaxed, sighed and stood, let me back her out, came back in, and finally backed out for me a last time in a nice, relaxed state. 

Day 6 with Mezza

Yesterday (Day 5) Mezza saw the farrier, and we continued with grooming and grazing. She will go barefoot for awhile as we work on soft ground and then probably need to be reshod later on.

Today, however, Mezza and I spent time reviewing both sensitizing (asking to move), and desensitizing (relaxation while everything else is moving). We moved on through nearly all of it with only a few spots that seem to need more attending to.

Once that was addressed, I tacked her up, and we took a walk in the heifer pen, where she was initially a bit wary. We started with me leading her. She relaxed pretty quickly as she learned the heifers would back off when we approached. The pen is fairly large, and when she lost focus I'd ask for something--a circle, a disengage, a turn. We desensitized again, and when that seemed good,  I got on and worked on lateral flexion and disengaging. She was awesome!  Then it started to thunder so we finished up there for the day. Sorry not to have pictures in the pen, I put the camera away when I thought we might get rained on. I'll try for pics again next time!