The Learning Curve Is Not Exponential, Part I

I say "Part I" because I am absolutely positive this is not the last time Mo will remind me of this fact.

After our great lesson last Thursday, Mo had the weekend off while I went home. I got out to the barn for the first time on Tuesday, and there was a horse show going on. This is her second horse show, and I planned to just pony her around a little bit, stand and watch some rings, but after going to move her saddle forward by the mounting block, she made it abundantly clear that there would be no riding today. Instead we walked around and practiced standing, not spinning circles to see everything that's going on.

She did get more acclimated to the sound of hard rubs while the small hunters clunked around, a sound which had at first terrified her. Fortunately, most of her spooking is stomping her front feet in preparation for liftoff. Maybe it's a scare tactic.

Today, she was a real pain at the mounting block. She pulls up and parks herself by it like a champ, but as soon as I took one step onto the block and her hind end went off in its own direction. After multiple adjustments and a few choice words, we were on our way. Sometimes it just takes persistence, I guess.

She chomps on the bit constantly. I've been told this is fairly normal, though, and won't worry about it (yet!). She's going in a plain D, so no rubber for her to ingest or anything fun like that.

As far as ingesting goes, she doesn't like peppermints, only crunchy cookies. Is it a baby thing?

We worked today mostly on consistency of pace at the trot and bends at the walk, as well as serpentines to encourage her to move off the inside leg. The canter was a small argument to the right, a smaller argument to the left, and we successfully picked up both leads and executed a wiggly lap. Progress!

I have to keep reminding myself that this is going to progress very slowly, and to be patient. As much as I might act like I'm annoyed, though, I really am enjoying the experience. I'm sure Dude's happy, too: it makes me appreciate him 150% more than before.