What I love about how Jenny is starting India:

1. We go slowly.
2. Jenny is thorough.
3. She is patient.
4. India is getting a thorough exposure in ropes
a. On the neck
b. On the girth and flank
c. Forelegs
d. Hindlegs
e. Flying through the air
f. Wrapped around the hindquarters
5. Every lesson starts in the round pen with India being asked to move her feet, move forward, and be soft.
I don't think it's possible to spend enough time working India in the round pen with this rope. She's getting such a thorough start and she's figuring out how to move her feet and work through a problem. Should she ever get hung in hidden barb wire on a trail, all this rope work means that she's less likely to fight, which would tear her to shreds on the wire. She's learning to think things through, and it reinforces what she was first taught, which is to give to pressure.
6. Work in the arena is more about being soft, but with a rider on top, and learning to move her feet in response the reins. She's doing serpentines now, but alas that vid didn't load. You get to see her canter instead!


And look at her canter!
Let's see if I can stick that vid in with all the pretty serpentines.


Some pictures of today's ride in the arena:



And then Jenny decided to leave the arena and HEAD FOR THE WOODS!!ELEVENTY!! ;0)



There's the run off from the pond. India wasn't too sure about this, even though she's crossed it before. That was about a year ago and she didn't have a saddle on and she's slept since then, so Jenny got off her and worked her from the ground.


And then with Jenny on top.

And then, after about 20 minutes in the woods and splashing through the stream five or six times, it was back to the barn for POTU.

See Chip, the happy Labrador retriever? Although isn't it redundant to say "happy Labrador retriever," for aren't they all happy by nature? Chip loves it when Jenny works India in the round pen or down by the pond. He runs around like a happy, excited Labrador retriever (again with the redundancy) and I am happy to have him zooming around like the wild thing he is for this is just another fact of life in India's world: dogs run around and get under foot and it's No Big Deal.