"Don't Pet Me, I Bite"

Apparently, "Don't Pet Me, I Bite" is what the girls needed to put outside of Dee's stall last week.  For whatever reason, a bunch of middle-school age children were being brought through the barn on tours, and Dee was incredibly upset about them.  I guess she started by just making nasty faces and tossing her head at them, but that quickly escalated to bite-attempts, and yet, the kids STILL wanted to pet her and crowd her.  The kids sounded pretty out of control, and one of them even slapped a gelding across the face for no reason at all.  At that point, the BM but chains across the barn door to keep them out.  That's one more thing Dee and I have in common - being uncomfortable with large groups of children.

We've been having afternoon storms all week, which kept me from riding, but the weather is finally gorgeous, and Dee and I had a nice time today.  I found out that Dee will stand like a soldier to be groomed if I just refrain from hooking her to the cross-ties.  I don't know why this makes a difference, but she is a completely different animal when I just keep her on a lead rope in the grooming stall.  Mares.  Go figure.

She has been absolutely fantastic under saddle, too.  She still starts out being tight through her neck and back, but then she relaxes and settles into the contact.  She is even giving me little changes in the trot, which is exciting, because her former response to "trot bigger" was "I will explode and gallop like a madwoman!"  Now, when I say "trot bigger" she just says "ok!"  Now our big project is getting her right hind stronger.  That's always been her weaker leg, and it's just time.  At least she is finally trying hard and working correctly most of the time!

We had a gorgeous day to work today, and afterwards, she got lots of grass and I got some nice shots of Brietta, the BM's gorgeous filly.