May 17 - first TOTALLY tackless ride!

She cantered up to me in the paddock! I think that’s a first. :) I thought about just hanging out in the paddock but she actually left my scratching of her and went up to the gate and seemed to want to go out, so we went out!

We both were very low energy and so didn’t want to do much, at least, not at speed. I had her in the outdoor today and despite doing some things that didn’t seem as “fun” (I started getting more particular on how I wanted her to extend her leg in jambette – but even at liberty, she didn’t leave, even when I made a few mistakes and could’ve offended her) she stayed quite connected to me.

I started a more solid “come up” cue – both arms down and out to the sides some, and kind of coming in to tap my leg, or if it’s a whip, tapping the ground. We practiced going out and coming up a few times (at a very leisurely walk :D ) and she did fine.

The fence is wooden so I sat on it playing around with her, her offering jambettes and so on, and she right away started offering inklings of sidepassing to it to get her treats/allow me on. She had her BB on and I slipped on. I rode for several minutes, not steering today and letting her walk off (or trot, which she did – she is more energetic/nervous when riding still) as she wanted, but asking for halts and rewarding that. It was okay, but she wasn’t quite tuned in to the halts and a few times I had to jiggle the reins. So instead, I started doing back up. The first few times I had to jiggle the reins, but then she got it and was really enthused. ;) She thought the cue meant go forward at first but soon figured it out. She did so great and was backing so well (very forward in diagonal pairs) I hopped off. She followed me around and was very connected when I went back to sit on the fence a few minutes later, and offered her back again, so I got on again – this time, NO bridle/cordeo/nothing! She was even better at backing this time and really got into it. I think that will make a really good whoa cue. She stops dead from a verbal whoa but I want just as solid a riding-cue whoa.