The great Houdini

Today I put ride four on Cheyenne. Just to give a little background, I've been working with Cheyenne for the past eight months on ground work, lunging, etc. Because I epically fail at math I was under the (false) impression she was actually a year younger than she is (although having been born in the wild, her exact birthday is unknown). A somewhat recent trip through her paperwork found that she was in fact an up & coming 3 year old, and not 2 year old as I had believed. A big part of me is grateful for the mistake because over these past eight months we've built such a great, stable relationship & framework to build our saddle training off of.

So far I've put only four rides on her & she has been nothing short of extraordinary for me. She stands like a champ to mount & in only four rides steers like a pro, circles, stops, & even trots. (well sometimes... when she's in the mood... it's a work in progress ;)) By ride 3 we'd moved from the round pen to the arena & trotted for the first time, and today (ride 4) we moved from the arena to the great big outside world. I took her down the aisle way past every horse & she was a perfect angel, completely ignored the other horses & focused on her job. I even taught her (yes, I'm totally serious!) how to open a gate! I was trying to push the gate open while on top of her and it kept swinging back at us. So I got her to push it open with her nose & we walked straight through without me ever having to dismount. We inspected the pigs, the dogs, the cat, and I even had her zig zag through some ground posts that were only about 3 feet apart.

I am in AWE at what a quick learner she is & how willing she is to do everything (well... again... the trotting thing) I ask of her! She has not once offered a single buck, rear, or objection of any sort. I guess those eight months of ground work have finally paid off! To think she's gone from a horse terrified of having a halter put on to this... Every time I lunge her all I can think about is how she used to protest by throwing herself on the ground and rolling around like a 3 year old having a temper tantrum. She certainly is full of spunk & as hard headed & stubborn as she may be sometimes... I wouldn't trade her for the world. :)