And... Exhale.

My new job started this past Monday, which means I can finally get settled into a routine again! For the past month, I felt like I was running at full-speed, with barely a chance to collect my thoughts. Two different jobs (training at the new one while finishing up the old) really didn't leave a lot of time for Gwen. I did get down to the barn a couple times a week, but I was so mentally exhausted we didn't really do anything besides graze/groom and walk around the ring bareback. So our games have gotten a little hazy as a result. When I've got it together, she's great. But when I can't remember what's up and what's down, we go to pieces.

But while we might not be on our A-game in the games-department, our relationship has REALLY gotten great!  For the past week and a half, Gwen has started meeting me "half way" when I go out to get her from the turn out. When I get close enough for her to see me, I'll give her a little 'Hi pretty girl,' call. In the past I might have gotten an ear flick. Now I'm getting two eyes, two ears, and a lifted head!  I've begun making it a habit to really slow down my pace, and kinda lumber (exaggerating my body sway, to look more relaxed and less predator-stalking). It started at 10 feet; I was lumbering my way towards her and she took a couple steps in my direction. Next day it was further, next day further. Now, I can stop about 15-20 feet, and she'll walk the rest of the way to me, and follow me back to the gate without needing her halter.

But today I got one of the greatest rewards to date. All those past times, there was nothing contesting her attention. Today, there was hay on the ground. I noticed as I walked out that they had been fed recently, and figured this would be a day where I'd have to halter her to get her to the gate (since all previous times when hay was involved, she had no interest in walking away from it). To my complete and utter astonishment, she LEFT HER HAY and met me "half-way" and then followed me back to the gate! I couldn't believe it! I am so amazed, and really, really touched by this. It was awesome!

Since my new job is literally across the street from the barn, I'm going to try to visit Gwen every evening. On those days when I don't get out until after 6, I'll probably just make it a quick trip, with some grooming and undemanding time. On the other days, when I have more time in the evening, I'm going to start pushing myself to get back on track as far as our games/play sessions go. I've gotten really lazy, and it's time we got back at it. I really want to pass our level 1 online, and for that we need practice-practice-practice! Me especially. I need a ton of work when it comes to being OK with people watching me. I didn't realize I had such a problem with spectators, but clearly I do. Whenever I even think someone might be watching us, Gwen starts acting like she has NO CLUE what I'm asking her to do. And I know it's my energy that's got to be getting to her. Time to get over the stage-fright!

In the mean time, enjoy pictures of the new baby at the barn!! He was born a week ago last Sunday. In these pictures, he's only two days old!

Sooooo cute!!

Baby! And mama's leg!

Look at that face!

Pretty blue eye!

His mama is a foundation-bred Quarter Horse named Slate. His daddy is a sorrel paint named Bandit. You can't see it in the photo's, but the coloring on his legs is actually a shimmery silver color! Unfortunately, he'll probably lose that as he grows up, and it will either turn black, or go gruella. He's so freaking adorable! And he absolutely loves people. They recently opened up his stall, so he's got a double-sized area. He gets let out into the arena with mama at least once daily, so he can run around and kick up his heels. When he's a little bigger, he'll get to play with he OTHER baby at the barn (who is a month or two older than him, I think...)

J

Fun Times!

I definitely did not intend to wait this long to post again! But, a ton has happened including... a new job! Hurray!  And with the new job comes a pay raise, double hurray!! I'm so excited! Not only is my job LITERALLY across the street from the barn, but I'm making more and will be getting regular raises which means, with fingers crossed, I should be making enough within the next two years to buy Gwen!! So that is my goal: save and work hard, and be able to purchase my pretty mare by summer of 2014. It's a lofty goal, but I have faith!

Speaking of Gwen... I did get down to the barn two Friday's ago, with the boyfriend and a camera. Of course, as soon as you put the horse, and the person (me) in front of a camera, we promptly forget everything we ever knew about anything. Our circling was terrible, our backing was terrible, our yo-yo was terrible, our touch-it was non existent... seriously, it was sad. I was embarrassed, and very very humbled.  It was bad enough that I've decided not to post the footage. Not out of vanity, but because I feel like it's a really poor example of what we're capable of. When the camera is not involved, we're so much better.

I know all of our "problems" that day were due to me. I don't consider myself camera shy, but there were a number of factors going on that day that were "new". It was the first time my boyfriend was watching us, and it was the first time we were being video-taped. I wasn't nervous, but I guess I felt a little pressure to show-off how good we are. Gwen certainly reacted to it, though not in a performance-enhancing kind of way. It was a bummer, since I was kinda hoping to video my Level 1 audition... but obviously we need to work on keeping our cool under pressure. We called it quits very early on, and went back to grazing.

After that terrible Friday session, I came home and thought a lot about what went "wrong", and also how to work on Gwen's attitude toward being ridden. I decided that I was probably asking a bit much of her all at once, and that breaking down the steps might help. So I really broke it down. On Monday, after grooming, I looped the lead over her neck and hoped on bareback, and then just sat there while she got to graze on the patch of grass by the turn-out. And that's all we did. I sat, she grazed. It was great. When my butt finally couldn't take any more (she's kinda bony...) I slid off, brushed her down again, and then turned her out.

Tuesday was a rinse-and-repeat kind of day. More sitting and grazing, and that's it. I didn't even touch the lead-rope. It was there purely for safety reasons. It's kinda fun to sit on her while she grazes. She gets to eat and doze, and I get to practice balancing myself on a horse once again. I haven't ridden seriously for almost ten years, and my body has changed so much since then (gained a little weight, balance has shifted, not fun). It was harder than I expected for me to just sit/move with her while she grazed, and keep relaxed and not tense up. especially when she shifts her weight to one extreme side. 

Sitting and Grazing!

Wednesday I did it again, lots of grazing and sitting, and balancing. I introduced some very minimal requests (such as moving away from the fence, or moving out of the bushes) but nothing too demanding.  Then I was gone Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday due to personal and work obligations.

So today was my first day back at the barn. I decided we'd riding in the arena today. I looped her lead around like I normally do, and then we walked over to the arena. We weren't the only ones riding, but it wasn't overly crowded. I spent a good five/ten minutes working with her on the ground first. We did some flexing, a little "standing and doing nothing" with the friendly game, played a little touch-it. And we did all this while I was wearing my helmet, and she had the lead knotted around her neck like I usually do when I ride. Everything was feeling really good, especially after our long hiatus from playing any games, that I decided to give riding a whirl. I hopped up on her, spent some time standing and flexing, and then asked her to move off at a walk and follow the rail. If we had been alone in the arena, I wouldn't have cared about direction, but as it was I had to make sure we stayed out of the way of the kids having their lesson.

We weren't perfect, but we did SO MUCH BETTER than every other time I have ridden!  I got direction changes without much complaint/argument. Only once or twice did I really have to be persistent about where we were going, otherwise she followed my suggestion very nicely. I tried to stay as relaxed and loose as I had been those earlier times (the sit-and-graze days), and made it a point not to ask her to do anything with my leg, since she seems to dislike it. I found that if I ask for a turn/direction change with both reins (as opposed to just direct-reining) she does a lot better. I am by no means an accomplished rider, but I think we did pretty well today! I'm very optimistic, and would like to continue riding her a little bit each day.

Happy horse after riding! Yummy grass

J

Riding.

My relationship with Gwen has hit a snag. Or, rather, I've found a snag in our relationship. On the ground, we're doing fantastic! Way ahead of where I thought we'd be, after only two months (Has it really only been two months!? Wow.)  I can tell by the way she reacts and responds to me when we're in the turn-out. When I walk up to her, she stops eating, gives me an eye and an ear, and pays attention to where I go. When I start to walk off, she happily follows after me without any pressure on my part. I simply have to start walking and she follows. This is beyond amazing to me, and the fact that it has now happened consecutively, means that I know it wasn't a fluke.

We're doing amazing on-line. She's attentive, happy, and willing to do what I ask. I rarely have to go beyond phase two, and we're fine-tuning our phase one. She'll walk and trot in the circle game, going off voice-commands alone, and we're working on canter with amazing results (she's been fussy about canter in the past, but this is not something I'm concerned about as she's making gigantic leaps forward each time we play, and I'm confident that what I'm doing is helping her be confident at all three gaits). She Yo-yo's like a champ, is yielding her forehand reliably (if a bit touchy on her right side still) and will touch just about everything I lead her up to, including the dreaded bridge (which I actually got her to walk over today, yay!). 

We've been doing SO well, in fact, that Monday and today (didn't have time to be at the barn yesterday) I decided to take it a step further and start riding again. Nothing fancy, just looped the lead around her neck and hopped on bareback. Monday, all I did was lead her to the mounting block, hop up on her off-side, and then we just stood there. Literally just stood at the mounting block and did absolutely nothing (well, lots and lots of friendly game while on her, but that's it). When I was ready to hop off, I asked her to move a few steps away from the block and then dismounted, and we ended on that.

Today, after a on-line, I got on her again. This time, I did not use the mounting block, but instead mounted off of the bridge. This was a non issue, though I think I surprised her, as I've never mounted her without the block. As soon as I was on her back, it's like I had a completely different horse. I'm so bummed out.

She gets defensive, locks up, super tense, makes really grumpy faces (that persist after I've dismounted until I've "rubbed" them away), doesn't want to move. I've touched on this in the past, when remarking about her behavior when I'm on her back, so this was nothing new. Previously when I've ridden her, she's displayed annoyance at my legs. What I mean is, when I ask her to move off of leg pressure, she tends to tense, and swing her head around to "bop" my leg with her nose.

Knowing this, I decided to adopt an approach that involved absolutely no leg pressure whatsoever. Since she goes off voice commands so well on the ground, I just wanted to use those. Since we were the only ones in the arena, I just left the "reins" loose across her shoulders. She got to pick direction, etc. I just wanted to dictate speed. We did a bit of walking, but when I asked for trot (using voice, and a bit of encouraging clucking) I got the same reaction I used to get with leg pressure; grumpy face, head swinging back toward my legs. This completely stumped me, as I was making sure I didn't put ANY pressure on her with my legs. We eventually got a few steps of trot, but she was so tense and jerky it was uncomfortable, and she was so clearly miserable that I didn't try to move her when she slowed down/stopped.

Instead of trying again, we just stayed parked where she'd stopped, and I did lots of rubbing on her, and talking to her, and finally just dismounted. Her grumpy face stayed until I rubbed on her head a bit, and she "came back to herself" for lack of a better explanation, and became the happy Gwen I'm familiar with. I did not want to end there. I was pretty determined to make some progress with "riding", if just to get her comfortable and happy-faced (or, not grumpy faced at least) with me mounting. So, we played a lot of friendly game with her by the mounting block, and then I did a lot of "leaning over" and rubbing on her side, then swinging my leg over, sitting for half a beat, and then dismounting off the other side. She seemed relaxed enough through it all, and didn't try to move away from the block while I was getting up/mounting, but I don't know if this is "progress" or not.

Basically, I'm stuck. I don't know where to go from here as far as riding is concerned. I'm more than willing to work on this for months/years if I have to, but I just want to know that what I'm doing IS going to help her, and isn't just making things worse. It's as if she doesn't realize that the person that's on her back, is the same person that's on the ground with her. Seriously, it felt like after I dismounted and played on the ground, she went from grumpy to "Oh, it's you! OK, let's play" and she was happy again. Right now, I'm pretty discouraged, and don't even want to ride, because I'm not sure if it's helpful.

This is definitely a plea for help/advice, so if you're reading this, I highly, highly encourage comments and advice. I'm pretty confident that it's something I'm doing. My boyfriend has agreed to go to the barn with me on Friday, just so that he can video me working with Gwen on the ground, and on her back, so I can see what's going on. I will definitely try to post that video, and will be seeking advice/comments/thoughts on it.

Keep in mind that I do not actually own the level 1/2 DVD's yet, and have only see the level 1 stuff that's posted on the Parelli Connect page. Purchasing the level 1/2 is something I very much want to do, and I wonder if it will help out with what I'm experiencing as far as riding Gwen. Is this simply a case of needing to work more on-line? Do I just need to do a LOT of "sitting around doing nothing" on her back? Any advice is welcome.

Thanks for reading,

J

p.s this is not a sleepy face. This is her post-Grumpy, coming back to Happy face. I get an ear, but she's clearly not happy. :(

Whoa!

Long time no post, I know. But OMG was last week crazy! A week ago last Saturday, I bought a new car. My old one was on it's last leg, so I decided to trade it in before it died completely and was worth even less. I now have a much younger, more dependable car WITH a warranty! Whoo!

Due to the car-trade-buying, I didn't get to see Gwen for a solid five days (SAD!) and when I finally got to see her last Monday, her wound was looking not so great. Instead of being completely healed, it was puffy and oozing puss. Very gross.  She wasn't limping, thank God, but I had to hose it down and poke at it to get most of the nasty stuff out (definitely didn't like that), and then hose it again before slathering ointment on it. After five days of the same routine, her leg is almost 100% healed! There's just a small scab where the wound was, but there's no swelling, and she doesn't seem to have any pain there at all, whoohoo!!

I didn't see her Saturday or Sunday. I'm not sure how she feels about those days that I don't go down. Is she glad for the break? Does she miss me? I'm not sure she would miss me in the same way that people miss each other, but since routine is such a big thing for horses, I wonder if she wonders where I am. But that's all philosophy. The cold hard truth is that... I know my horse loves me!

Whenever I go "catch" Gwen, I make sure that I rub all over her, both sides, before I ask her to wear the halter. This way, she doesn't feel like I just show up and nab her, and I get a chance to walk around her and look for any boo-boo's, etc. Today, she was picking at the leftover bits of hay on the ground, (which is pretty typical) as I walked around her, but when I came around her rear and up on her left side, her head was up and tilted toward me, and she was giving me her left eye and ear. This is new! Usually she will acknowledge me, but this was more than that. So I decided to see if she would walk with me a little bit without the halter. I've tried in the past with zero response, and she usually just goes back to picking at hay-bits. Today, she walked ALL THE WAY back to the gate with her head at my shoulder, no halter, no rope (I didn't even have to put my hand on her) and she looked happy and content to be there. I was completely and totally blown away. BEST DAY EVER!! I didn't care what we did after that, I was over the moon!

I am so completely thrilled that she wanted to be with me. True, it wasn't dinner time, but she still chose to walk with me to the gate, knowing we would be leaving the turnout, and she stuck to me like glue. <3

I repeat. Best. Day Ever!

"What's that!"

Yummy round-pen grass! Nom nom nom.

J

Two Days for the Price of One!

aka, Jackie is lazy and hasn't updated in two days, and now must put both days in one post! Haha!

Tuesday:
After what happened on Monday, insofar as Gwen's RBI moments, I was really curious how Tuesday would turn out. First of all, her leg is doing SO MUCH BETTER! The swelling is gone and though she still has a wound, it's not bleeding. I'm keeping a close eye on it, making sure it stays clean and that I keep Swat on it to make sure the flies don't bother her. Otherwise, she's right as rain :)

No more swelling!

 There were kids in the ring, so I couldn't play in there. But rather than use the round pen, I decided to work in the big open space between the Jump ring (aka the boys turnout) and the barn. I was pretty proud of myself because even though I'm usually shy about playing with Parelli when others can see me, I got out there and played in full view of everyone and it didn't bother me at all!! I was so confident in what I was doing that I wasn't the least bit concerned about criticism or observation. I was pretty pleased with myself. I don't think I'll have any problems playing around other people from now on, but more on that later.

We played with all our games except squeeze and sideways, mostly because there was no fence. After musing about how we both behave when working on her "off" side, and listening to some pretty good advice, I've decided to really try to nip it in the bud, and focused heavily on right-side activities. I'd never paid much attention to it before, but Gwen really goes to great lengths to keep me in her left eye. To the point that if I'm standing slightly to her off-side, she'll tip her neck around to have her left eye toward me. I always thought she was looking into the distance or something, but now I can really see that she does NOT like me on her right.


We did lots of circling-game with her going clockwise, and then lots and lots of driving-game with me on her right. She didn't care for that; lots of halting, freezing, head-in-the-air uncomfortable looks, (she's a wiz at the driving game when I'm on her left). But I tried to make it easy for us both, and we played the 'driving game on the right' towards a patch of grass, and her reward for getting there with me was a nice relaxing break, where she could pick at the grass while I rested. Very low-key.

Resting

Yummy!

 We rested for about a minute or two, and then went back to driving-game. I used a conveniently located trailer (not the ones in the pictures, but another one closer to the barn) to play touch-it with. She wasn't really keen on that, but I think she was a tad confused as to what I wanted her to touch. She kept going for a rubber bin that was on the ground, then looking at me like 'That was it, right? No? Are you sure?'.

After touch-it we played with yo-yo. She is getting so good at it! We had two 'backing' at phase one! Yay! Each time we play, she's getting better and better. Soon, I'll really start working on a snappy response and more than two steps at a time. Right now it's 'finger-wiggle, step, step, stop, phase-two, step step, stop, etc, and I have to keep asking. But she's getting better).

Wednesday:
Got super lucky on Wednesday; though there were people in the ring, there were only three so I took the opportunity to stake out a corner to work with Gwen. Everyone ended up leaving about five minutes after, just because it was getting late in the day, so I ended up having the place to myself! We did all the same things as Tuesday, but also some sideways and squeeze. And we played touch-it with a wooden bridge that one of the other riders had left out. Her yo-yo was awesome too! I'm consistently getting more and more backing off of phase one alone.

Things were going well enough that I decided to hop on bareback. She was OK with me riding her, but her attitude definitely changes. It's like... on the ground she's responsive and listening, but once I'm on her back, she reverts to her old ways, and I really don't want to get into a situation where we're both unhappy with the other one. After a trip or two around the arena, I called it quits on riding and went back to on-line stuff. Then, since we were alone, I turned her loose in the arena to see what she did. I thought she might wander off and roll, or go get a drink, but she stuck with me the whole time. If I sat on the mounting block, she'd only come within five feet of me, but if I got off and walked around, she'd follow me so close that either her nose would be at my shoulder, or her cheek would be. It was flattering, and very rewarding since we'd had a not-so-great experience with me on her back so recently.

Loose in the arena! Happy Gwen :)

Her mane is getting so long!

Clearly not thrilled with the hat-idea ;)

Since today was a day off work, I also made it a day off from the barn to recharge my batteries. Might go down tomorrow, otherwise I'll definitely be there Saturday!

J

What-A-Week!

First off, my post title is kind of a joke ;) We have a burger place down here called Whataburger, so I thought I'd be silly and use 'Whataweek' ;)

Secondly, WOW. What a week! And not in the good kind of way :/

I only got to see Gwen twice last week. I got down there last Monday, but we didn't do anything besides get a bath, and graze.  Sometimes at the same time.

Wet Gwen!

 Then we did a whole lotta grazing while she dried out. But of course, despite her being almost 100% dry, the first thing she did outside was... Roll!

Rolling...rolling...rolling...

But, thankfully, I had already loaded her up with conditioner, in anticipation of JUST such a thing, in hopes that it would help the dirt just slide right off rather than stick to her. Once she was finished rolling, she came back to say hi.

Hi Gwen!  That's Cool's tail...

And then... I wasn't able to get back to the barn until Saturday! :( Several things contributed to this, most significantly work. I had two days at work where I simply could not leave early enough to get there on time. And then there were errands and doctor appointments (btw, Tetanus shots HURT!!) and boyfriends who needed to be picked up from the airport... phew.  So it was Saturday before I actually got to see Gwen again.

And Saturday was a BIG day!  The people I lease Gwen from own a ranch (a real working cattle ranch) and Saturday was a big huge barn party. So Star, Cool, and Gwen all got loaded up, and I tagged along to be with Gwen and to help out with things. We spent the Whole. Day. There. From about 9am until 7:30 pm. Crazy. And we all worked our butts off, but the ranch owners were thrilled, and I think the party was a huge success, and I had a lot of fun with Gwen.  And.. Star and Cool did not come back with us. They stayed "home" at the Ranch.

I didn't get to see Gwen again until today, and I'd been a little concerned about how she was handling the loss of her two buddies. She seems to be OK. I think she's made friends with one of the mules.  Unfortunately, when I pulled her out of the turn-out, she had a boo-boo!

It looks like one of the other horses kicked her.  It's not bad, but it's definitely swollen and sensitive, and there was a bit of a puncture (a little blood, but nothing scary).  Barn owner said she should be just fine. I hosed her leg for ten minutes, then slathered the area with Swat to help keep the flies away, and then spent a TON of undemanding time just letting her graze.

Ouch! (the white stuff is Swat)

It was clearly tender, but she wasn't limping. I'm hoping by tomorrow it will look a lot better.

Nom nom nom. What boo-boo?

Boo-boo's and barn-parties aside... Something happened that weakened my relationship with Gwen. Not in a big way, and nothing that is irreparable, but she was regarding me a bit differently towards the end of our time together. I think I just pushed her a little too far today, asking for things a bit more firmly than usual. While we did spend a lot of undemanding time today, toward the end I played a little yo-yo and circle-game (well, I asked her for one circle, but that's it). I think I was a bit too aggressive with her. She takes things so calmly, and she catches on SO fast that I sometimes forget she's an RBI - it just hardly ever comes out! But today I saw a bit more of her RBI side.

While asking for Circle, she did a lot of stopping, tensing, looking unsure and unconfident, which is not how our circling usually goes. I abandoned the circle game after half a circle because I could tell her hesitation was not her asking 'what do I do now' but more of a 'I don't like this...' So I stopped, and did a lot of trying to entice her toward me. She was very resistant. She didn't want to move forward, and she had such a sullen expression it broke my heart! I crouched all the way down to the ground and just let my gaze go unfocused toward her feet/ground, and combed the lead until I got a step or two.

Her whole attitude was one of unconfidence and sadness. She just looked miserable. I did everything I could think of to try to repair the damage, mostly by just using the finger-comb method to bring her toward me a step at a time, and then spending a lot of time gently/slowly stroking her face and nose once she got there. Then I would ease back up, move off a bit, and see if she would come/follow me. If she didn't want to follow, I'd go back to the finger-comb/petting of before. After a few minutes, she would follow me willingly, and seemed to be a LOT happier (much happier expression, much more interested in what was going on around her, much more willing to move/follow me) so I did a bit more friendly-game/massaging her legs, touching her gently everywhere but around her injury, and then I turned her back out.

I think we're back on good terms, but I'm definitely using this as a reminder that she IS an RBI, and I need to remember not to push her just because she seems to catch on super fast.

J

Seven Games

Yesterday, for the first time, Gwen and I played all seven games online. It was amazing! I was so pleased to find out that our successful rope-wiggle yo-yo was, in fact, a real thing and not just a fluke or something I'd dreamed up. It might seem silly, but watching her back away from me as I wiggle my finger/rope is something I will never get tired of. From the beginning it was our "hardest" game, and for a few days I was absolutely convinced we wouldn't get it. I know that our success is due to the fact that I made sure to slow down and practice the very basic games, like Porcupine.

We're even doing really good forehand yielding, and she's getting better each time. She definitely has a preference for her left-side. When I'm standing on her left, she just seems to do better. It doesn't surprise me, because I feel more comfortable and manipulating the rope and carrot-stick are much easier for me from that side. It's something I've definitely got to work on, because I know if I don't make an effort to practice from the right, my tendency will be to work from the left, simply because working on the right is "hard" for me. And I'm a bit LBI when it comes to that sort of thing. I don't like to work ;)

Our Touch-it is getting really good. Things that are "tall", like upright barrels and jump-standards, are easy for her. She kinda gets lost when I direct her to things on the ground (like cones, or "fallen over" barrels) and she has a tendency to step over/around rather than clue in to the fact that I want her to touch it. We'll definitely work on it though.

We did the circling game at a trot yesterday, both ways. She really wants to move away from me when she's on the half-circle closest to the pasture (no surprise there), and she has a habit of hesitating/stopping when she's in front of me. I think it's anticipation, or uncertainty about what I want her to do, and I have a habit of looking up at her when she comes around, so I think I'm going to experiment with keeping my eyes on the ground as she circles and see if that helps her.

Yesterday was the first time we played the Sideways game, for two reasons. 1) We can't play this one in the round pen. And 2) I was kinda dreading it, because I thought it might be one of the more difficult games for us. Boy was I wrong about that! Her sideways just might be her best game yet! I was very impressed. She caught on extremely quickly. I decided to use her herd-bound buddies to help me out, and made sure our first attempt was a sideways toward the pasture. We had a bit of a wobble in the beginning, as she tried to figure out if I wanted her to lead the way, or back up, but she caught on pretty quickly that she was supposed to move shoulders/hind at the same time. And then we flew! Down the rail to the pasture, then a quick "squeeze" and a hindquarter yield to get her nose on the rail to go back the other direction (which was just as good) and then a bit of yo-yo for good measure.

She was fantastic! Only had two or three moments when she got a bit tense and concerned. For the most part, she's really listening and watching me, trying to figure out what I want and then doing it. What a fantastic horse! I feel so lucky :) I love my girl!

J