Spring

Wow, it's been a while! Well spring is here, everyone is shedding. By everyone I mean Epona, Xandra, and a new band mate Mattie. Mattie joined the band December 16th as a Christmas present for my boyfriend's eight year old niece, Shaylise. Mattie is a mustang off a range in Oregon, she is not a curly :-(, she is exactly what Shaylise wanted though. She's about 3 1/2 years of age and thankfully is quick to learn new things, proving to be an adventure and a half!!
I've been riding Epona pretty regularly, by that at least once a week. We'd mostly stopped for the winter as we have nowhere indoors to go and it's been pouring rain, yuck!! I recently acquired a hackamore and we are gradually getting used to it. I am hoping that both of us will communicate more effectively with it's use. Will see how it goes.
I've also begun Mattie's training, been lunging her and flapping all sorts of odd items all over her body. Oddly enough while she seems un-flappable about all of this, she still hates having her feet lifted, I haven't dared try trimming them yet, luckily she doesn't need them done yet, she's got really hard hooves.
Xandra's been curious about the work I'm doing with Mattie, so after each of Mattie's sessions I do everything I did with Mattie, with Xandra. We don't do too much and never on a tight circle. I think Xandra learns from watching Mattie make her mistakes, because I just ask Xandra for whatever it is and she does it the first time perfectly. What a smart horse she is!!
I've also been sitting on Epona while she grazes or eats her dinner. She gets a little nervous around being mounted, i am hoping that my daily mounting her and just sitting or laying there quietly on her she will get progressively calmer about the whole thing. So far it seems to be the case.