Hired help

Oh, alright, not *technically* HIRED help! ;)

Annika volunteered to come over and ride with me, while she's horseless (leaase mare Foxy went back to her owners & Mack is away learning a few manners). I trimmed Scarlett's feet in the morning then had a bit of a break before she arrived.

We caught, groomed & tacked up then did a wee bit of groundwork in the paddock. Unfortunately I was totally disorganised & managed to forget where everything was, including Indy's CR rope, so I took Scarlett's one and Annika just worked off the reins.

It was really cool to have someone who knows what they are doing around horses & when riding (I don't have to worry about them), seems to like the horse (she got on and said "gee, this horse has a sense of humour!!" which is very true... I couldn't let anyone who wasn't able to laugh get on Scarlett, it would blow her sheshul wee brain) and also understands the CR stuff (I gave a few pointers or reminders every now and then but basically left them to it).

Bonus! She can see how it feels to ride a horse that's done a fair bit of CR, my horse gets ridden, I can focus on Indy and all is good! :D

We rode around the paddock for a few minutes, testing directions and brakes, etc, then out down the drive and lane. We rode across to the other lane and then turned around for home. Indy did really well, with only a few looky moments. Annika was able to either stop Scarlett and wait for Indy to collect up her brain cells, or keep going to give Indy incentive to un-stick her feet. Awesome! I was very proud of Indy's ability to cope with all the new things (it was only her third time ever down the lane, second time ridden).
It does show me how far she has come & the importance of taking things slowly, so that when the horse is exposed to new and scary things there are ways to help it cope with those things.

I meant to take the camera out but in my forgetfulness, didn't. I really must upload pics one of these days...