Hindsight, 20/20

I would really love to know why I didn't make this happen sooner.

This morning, I took Ms. Mare to the indoor for a little in-hand work, to refresh her manners before Casey came out to work with us tonight.  I asked her to halt, standing square, facing away from the door we came in through.  Apparently, if we were to in fact halt without one eye on said doorway, dragons would come bursting out of it.

It took 20 minutes for me to get her mind to follow her into the indoor, and another 10 after that to actually get the square halt I was looking for.

It shouldn't have been that hard to get her attention.

I'm a bad momma, not working her like I should.

But this is why I need help, right?

This evening was (both literally and figuratively) like comparing night and day.  Sure, Ms. Mare broke out the attitude.  We started with some work on the longe line, and Ms. Mare showed off most of her evasions to being asked to actually work politely.  For the record, she's not bad- she's just naughty.  Instead of carrying herself, she tends to arch her neck and do a decent imitation of being in frame- until you see the hollow back and her hind end just kind of dragging all over the place.  Or she'll step under herself, and stick her nose up in a great giraffe imitation.  And if you get really firm about it and ask for both ends to be engaged at the same time... she'll turn to the inside and all of a sudden your longe line is slack and you can't really ask for collection anymore and it all goes to heck in a handbasket.

So we worked on it.  We worked on praising for using her hind end and front end and back ALL AT THE SAME TIME, without worrying about the shape of the circle we were working on.  We worked on picking up her nose when she goes to drop it too low, and adding energy to the hind end when it starts dragging.  We got to do something different when we got 5 (five!) good strides in a row.  We never did get them at the canter, but she's a little unbalanced for that still, so we settled for maintaining the canter for 3 laps.

And then I got on.  And I tell you, it was amazing.  For the first time in a VERY long time, I felt like Ms. Mare and I were connected again.  This was the horse that I used to ride, when she was three and we'd do SOMETHING together every day- in hand work, a trail ride, light schooling- whatever!  I was ready to cry just from the relief of it.  On Sunday, I'll confess, I said unforgivable words.  I asked Toro why I kept her, if she wasn't a horse I enjoyed riding.  I asked him why I didn't just sell Ms. Mare, and content myself with horses I actually liked.  Last night's ride- even though all we did was walk to cool out, and some turns on the forehand to keep the corners interesting- reminded me of how much I really love this mare, and how much I think we can do together.

I should have asked for this years ago.