New Found Motivation

Good morning all,
It's been a fair amount of time since I last blogged, but I thought I may as well get back into it as I've got a lot of time and writting down gives me a chance to process what goes on when I work with Olivia.
All is good in our world, I've been away for 3 weeks so Olivia has had a lovely break and, unsuprisingly, has got a bit full of herself. I got back to find out she has been beating up her field mate and hassling the staff when they bring her in. Woops! I worked her for the first time yesteday, only for about 15 minutes of groundwork. She cantered over to me in the field when I went to fetch her, normally she just plods over which goes to show how exuberant she was feeling. In just 15 minutes there was lots of rearing and defiant behaviour but by the end she was happy to just calmly stand by me. My always hungry horse also insisted on eating the grass every time she wasn't moving; she even tried to trot and graze which produced a lovely looking stretch but wasn't really what I was going for. Probably my mistake in working her in a field that has been rested during all this rainful and sunny weather and so is full of long, rich grass.

In other news, while I was away I was watching a video I had made of me and Olivia (http://www.youtube.com/user/princessjoxxx#p/a/u/0/3kjp6OaBIjI if you're interested) and I noticed that when I used the parelli/myler cradle bridle Olivia's tongue was much quieter. Of course there is the exception of when she was really heavy in the hand during the back-up and her tongue pops out, but when the contact was light she was light in the mouth. For reasons I can't remember, but I'm assuming it was to do with being a bit hungry for some money, I sold the bridle and bit a few years ago and have been using a simple snaffle since. Well yesteday I ordered a new myler bit with a high port and am hoping that it will help with the restless tongue syndrome. The myler version is slightly cheaper than the parelli, and I didn't want the whole cradle system because I want the connection to be with her mouth rather than all over her head. When it arrives I'll let you know how she gets on with it.

Anyway, now that I'm back for a solid two months until I go to France (with Olivia) for 3 weeks - more about that another time - I'm happy to be able to try and get some proper work done with her and accomplish some new goals. Ideally, a quieter mouth.

Over and out, love Jo xxx