I went to get Reina out of her field and she snuggled with me for a while. She's so fricken adorable! But we got ready pretty fast to make sure Chi would be able to get home on time, so I just brushed her off a bit, picked out her hooves, and petted her. Then I tacked her up and off we went!
I was finished tacking up before Chi was, so Rei and I stood around while she was finishing up. I've discovered that the more comfortable Reina gets, the more personality shows through. My horse is hilarious. We were standing for not even 2 minutes before she starts playing with her tongue! I've never seen a horse do this, so it took me a while to figure out what it was. But she had me cracking up. Here's a video of her being a goofball:
Is that not the silliest thing you ever did see? :D
So! We started walking and she quit once she had something else to think about. Silly horse!
We went up to her arch nemesis, the Clangy Gate of Doom. She didn't really want to go through it at first, but I convinced her after maybe 30 seconds and a few backing up sessions. She snorted once, but then cut it out. Once she was through the Clangy Gate of Doom, she settled right in and was 85% relaxed from the get go, instead of like 20% relaxed like last time! After the first few strides, she settled in to about 90% relaxed, and just kept getting more relaxed as the trail ride went on! I was a proud, proud horse mom!
She walked past the waving flag after some snorts and stopping, and didn't pay it any more mind after I assured her it would not, in fact, devour her. And then some little kids started yelling out to talk to us and we talked back, and Rei didn't even flinch. They came up to us and were super nervous around her 'cause she's ginormous, but I told her she was a good girl and wouldn't hurt them, and the brave little 9-year-old girl reached up to pet her nose (she had to get on her tip-toes to reach the bottom of Rei's nose 'cause Rei was super interested in something across the field and had her head up a bit). Reina didn't even flinch! I was like, aww, lookit you, bein' diplomatic! What a good girl!
Then.. a school bus came! Gasp! But Reina acted like she was turned out with school buses on a regular basis. She really didn't care! I mean, she was like "wow, Mom, that thing is noisy - also, why are we standing so still?!" But that was about it. She was silly and started yawning and stretching and bobbing her head to keep boredom at bay. Goofy, goofy horse! I love her personality, it is adorable.
Again, sorry if some are a bit blurry... it's hard to be a
pro photographer with a cell phone while riding a horse ;)
So! We had a communication mishap. It went something like this:
"HEY MOM! It's a FIELD! Let's go mow through it!"
"Umm, no, I'd really rather stay on the trail."
"Seriously? What? No. You're not serious. FIELD!!!"
"No, Rei, I said TRAIL. Come on. Follow Chi and her horse!"
"But MOM. F - I - E - L - D . I'm a horse. Clearly, I know better than you do."
(Reina promptly runs herself into a tree trying to not listen to me.)
Me: "....."
"Okay, fine, maybe we'll go your way."
So I backed her out of the tree branches and she started listening to directions after that. ;)
There were a few times where she refused to go forward because the other horse had stopped or she was looking at something. So my next project: forward momentum! Control her start button! She'll move off my leg most of the time, and if I feel her ask to go forward, all I have to do is answer "yes," no leg required. But if it's not HER idea to go faster than a walk, she can get sticky and grumpy about it. BUT, I can't fault her for this. We haven't worked on gaits or transistions at all yet. We've just done steering and moving off leg from a halt to a walk, stopping and backing. Now that she's gained some weight and is pretty solid in her basics, I think she's about ready to start some trot work! Specifically, moving off leg. Note to self!
Blurry trees are blurry 'cause we were trotting. Oooh, ahhh!
She worked up a teensy sweat on her neck, just before it connects to her shoulder. She's obviously very out of shape, but she also really loves to work! So that'll make it way easier for me to condition her. But I'm not going to so anything drastic until she fattens up! Mostly walking and little spurts of trotting sometimes are plenty for her right now!
She doesn't look very happy in this one... but she is, I promise!!
See? Told you.
However, a little urging and some petting later, she let out one big SNOOOOOOORT! and walked over it perfectly fine. Then the other horse followed suite once she saw that Reina didn't get eaten. But we came to a corner Reina couldn't see around, and so she stopped and didn't want to go forward. The other horse led again and was fine after that, so Rei just followed her. Silly boss mare!
Reasons for this pose are twofold: first, it's cute, and secondly,
Rei has the racehorse mindset of FORWARD! when I lean forward.
I don't want her to think that forward automatically means explode!
So we trotted a good portion of the trail, and the little Arab mare Chi was on simply did not trot big enough. Reina kept trying to pass her. So finally, I asked her to walk, and told her that we'd let them trot on and in a minute, we'd go really fast to catch up! I think she understood me, because she didn't fight me holding her back at all. And then I leaned forward in a 3-point/half seat type of deal, and clucked, let the rein loose, and said "okay, let's go!" She broke into a trot, then trotted faster to ask if it was okay to canter, and I clucked again and didn't pull back. She almost took off straight away into a gallop (silly racehorse mind), but I told her no. So... she cantered! Hooray! She settled in to a lovely rocking canter for a few strides.
Keep in mind I'd never really felt her canter before - just walk, trot, and a teensy bit of a gallop. But oh man, her canter really was lovely!! It was wonderful, and she was so good, and she came right back to me when I asked. Yay! Success! She tries so hard for me, she really does. She's such a good horse.
More trotting blurriness! lol. I need an actual camera, yes I do..
Oh! Note the dog in some of the pictures? That's Jeff, one of Chi's dogs. Reina was totally unconcerned that he was along for the fun. :)
Chi complimented me and Reina, because I confessed that I'd never done bitless before, or trained a horse to go in just a rope halter, or anything like that. She said she never would've known that Reina was ridden in a giant western bit, couldn't steer/wouldn't listen, or that I had no bitless experience! I was touched, haha. She said she was doing so well, and had come such a long way in such a short time, and she was super impressed and pleased with our progress! She was very proud and thought I did really well in picking her out. It was very sweet of her to say!
I'm convinced that this is what Heaven will look like! ♥
Right before we have the farm in view on the way back, Reina speeds up and passes the other mare and pins her ears and tosses her head and swishes her tail.. for good measure. Chi and I were like, uhh, what? You were behind the whole time... then Chi goes: "oh my gosh, it's because we're almost in sight of the other mares!" She has to keep appearances up as to not undermine her authority with the others, so, God forbid they would see her walking behind another horse. Oh, Reina!
So we get home and I decide to rinse Reina off for the first time! Hmm, I wonder how she is with baths? Well, I was about to find out! (Yeah, it was hot out - like 75-ish!) So I start rinsing her off and she keeps wiggling, but I can tell it's not because she's scared. She wiggles so much her mouth ends up near the hose, and... well, that's exactly what she was going for!
How adorable is she? Seriously. Haha. So I rinse her off with no issues at all, not even tying her up, just holding her lead rope while rinsing. She keeps trying to drink out of the hose and she's cracking me up with her facial expressions as she's doing it.
And then, I spray her ears, and she flicks them back and shakes her head and glares at me, betrayed! Then, she deliberately shakes. Twice. All over me. Thanks, Rei! Point taken. lol!
So then I put her in her stall to feed her, and what does she do with her freshly-rinsed coat?
Yup, you guessed it. She rolled.
Ugh!
So I spent her dinnertime trying to brush off the worst of it before putting her back out.
How awesome is she, though, really? She's bursting with personality and adorableness. I got so lucky with her!
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