Bank Holiday Monday.

It's amazing what you can see in a field meant for horses. I wasn't sure I believed what I thought I saw so I went closer.....

Yep I did see what I thought I saw.

Here's B in her herd of five after our morning together. We played in the school after I mucked out and it was great fun. B was full of energy and attitude. I think I may have become a bit boring for her with all the standing around I usually do. So today I actually played with her. She really wanted to move so we must have dome three laps of the whole school sideways in trot! Not all in one go but there was at least one circuit non stop. She gave me trot and canter on circle game but got unconfident and kept stopping. Change of direct was what got us playing with B snaking her head with exuberance. So I took the line off and watched her leave lol. She knew Brown Bertie was in the field and proceeded to run along the short side of the school from the gate to the corner.

I played the catching game which was pretty good but our stick to me is non existent really. So I let her leave again and again and kept on playing the catching game. She didn't look afraid or snotty and eventually we did have stick to me for a short while when I asked her to come along to a barrel where there was a piece of carrot. I think it's a good start and she was even quite happy to walk to me, then next to me and be haltered.

I had caught the sight of Sandra getting ready to ride out of the corner of my eye and realised we had been in the school for quite a long time. We got saddled nicely in record time and B stood completely still while I got on and tied the line up.

Our ride was very similar to yesterday to begin with, with B napping a little as we tried to leave the yard. I think our honeymoon is definitely over and she is testing my leadership. B grumped Bertie again when she wanted to lead. So I asked Sandra to flap her hands at B if she tried it again. Do you know, she stopped doing it after that! Once in a while she tried to turn for home so I just turned her back or did a full circle. No fear today but I felt B was being very LBI and her attitude was 'I don't want to and you can't make me'. It occurred to me that B expects to go around the woods and home. End of story. I am worried we may be setting a precedent here and leading into B only wanting to do this. So we did a lot of turning away from home or going back the way we came. We even tried some sideways too which was great. She was ok with that mostly but if we got too far from Bert she wanted to trot to catch up.

At the exit we had a little bit of resistance and an attempt to nap but then B did as asked and we carried on along the start of the mile and 1/4 to the nice grass area. Bert got stuck in but B was too tense. We did some circling and walking up and down then she settled and ate a few things. Then it was back along the other way, then turn for home. Back on the yard we had a mooch and a graze around before I got off on the right side instead of the left.

I am still licking and chewing this over. It's very very interesting!