A Week Of Progress

Sangria and I are continually moving forward in her gentling and training process. I work with her as often as I can, introducing new tasks, tools and requests. This past week, our major accomplishments were getting her feet trimmed by the farrier, playing with the scary blue tarp, more hindquarter yielding, lots of trailer hauling and ultimately her first couple rides, albeit bareback!

Sangria has progressed to the point of being ok with many daily tasks, such as tying, putting her blanket on and off, grooming or touching everywhere, tacking up, leading, loading and even clipping. She has gentled dramatically though has almost gone too far in that direction and can be pushy at times, so we are now working on personal space issues.

Cowgirl Spirit's amazing farrier, Greer Hei, came out twice this week to help work with Sangria - getting her used to other people handling her. Greer has a confident yet calm manner about her and was quickly able to trim Sangria's feet.

Almost all of my first rides on an unboke colt have been in a saddle, but something told me that it would be better to introduce Sangria to a rider bareback the first few times. I think the repetition of getting on and off and being able to bail should she no longer be ok with me being on her is why I made that decision. While Sangria is very smart, and figures out what you want her to do right away, she's also somewhat ADD! Capturing and holding her attention can be difficult at times. So, while she might be fine with me jumping on her, sitting on her, asking her to walk around, she can quickly get distracted, then re-realize I am on her and get scared!

So, I am working hard to build her confidence so that being on her is not scary. I've been on her a couple times and she's done great. I am hopeful to ride in the saddle today - once I've met that goal, we will graduate to the large arena, and then trail rides, and the biggest goal of all - a beach ride next weekend. Boy, we've got a busy week ahead of us - I hope Sangria is ready for this! :)

Pics from our first ride: