Captured On Tape

All has been good in Sofieland. Although her right hock has been acting up (I think it is in the process of fusing, which is not an especially nice process) Sofie's attitude hasn't wavered. Even when she started bobbling behind and head-bobbing slightly at the trot after a 30 minute ride in the back field, with lots of trot work and hills, which really got her using herself (apparent in the video taken that day), she never acted upset or mad. She was still willing to do whatever I asked her. I ended the ride a short time after feeling her become "off" and made sure it wasn't a tendon or hoof injury, but no, just the dumb right hock.

The day after I had another good ride. She was rather anxious and herdbound for some reason, but not too unmanageable, even when I rode her down the road (things got a little dicey, but we pulled it out in the end). The big event of that last ride was that she cantered all the way from The Place Where We Like To Canter to the front yard, almost to the driveway. I stayed off her mouth, and her hind legs did what they were supposed to. And later I walked her through The Place Where We Like To Canter without a repeat performance.

I'm just really impressed with her attitude as of late. She's trying really hard for me, and she lets me give her hugs and hold her face in my hands. When I first got her, any face-holding resulted in head-throwing.

The dad got video of us out in the Big Field, and while I still have to go through it and get some stills with my equestrian eye (there are some awesome ones to be gotten, I know that much from watching it), here are a few dad-picked stills for the meantime.