Getting to know eachother

Today was our very first day working together and I couldn't be any happier with how it went. It was just very basic ground skills and getting to know each other but it all went very smoothly.

When I first went out to catch her (in a lot with all the other training horses) she was hesitant about being caught. And by hesitant I mean she took a few steps away from me before realizing that I got the lead rope around her neck! While I waited for everyone else to catch their horses I spent some time just petting her all over. I messed with her ears, her lips, touched her belly and her teats all with her not caring. That was a great first sign to me. My first impression of her was that she has a super cute head!

Once all the horses were caught we headed for the barn. She was a little nervous and looking going into the barn but didnt do anything other than raising her head and really looking at things. Once she got in her stall she settled down a little which was another good sign since there were several other horses that were screaming and circling their stalls right by her. After a brief low down on what we were going to do that day we headed out to the arena. Once again she was nervous and looky going into the arena. She was very sensible about it all though and never reacted anything more then really looking at something or putting her head up higher. As we walked around the arena I started doing some halt transitions to keep her attention along with seeing how much she pays attention and listens to me. She settled right down and was very attentive to what I was asking of her and improved each and every time. By the end of the class she was halting when I stopped and would back up with me simply facing towards her and walking backwards with her, no rope pressure at all. After I got a decent feel of how she is I took her over to some long whips. Some with bags on the end and some without any. Because she had been slightly nervous with some new things I started with the plain whips just to get a feel of what she likes/dislikes. She was great! None of it bothered her. Not under her belly, between her legs, over her head, nothing. After making sure she was really desensitized to that one from each side I moved on to the one with the plastic bag on the end with the same results, what a good girl!

I then took her back to her stall to see if she ties and if so how well. She passed that with flying colors also! A quick 'does she tie?' and we headed out of the barn for a walk outside. Once she settled down outside and was walking on a loose rope and listening well I took her back to her stall for a MUCH needed brushing! She absolutely loved it. I tied her but and she just stood there with her head down loving every minute of it. Not a bad first day at all!

Some goals for next week:
-Get her mane cut and pulled like a dressage pony (that she is going to be!)
-Trim her tail (just an inch or two to make it look good)
-See how she does with the clippers. Depending on her reaction she needs her whiskers and a bridle path clipped
-Give her a bath! This is weather dependent but she could really use one. It would be nice to be able to get her all prettied up and clean
-Start working with picking up all four hooves, holding them, and fake rasping them (Owner said that was an issue)
-Keep desensitizing her to scary things (such as the plastic bags, etc)
-Whatever round pen work Jenny has us start on

(Please excused the crappy pictures... took them with my cell phone. Will get better ones Monday!)

 Shaking right after I turned her out after brushing her!

Gorgeous bay!