First of many Firsts - I hope!

Had a lovely Saturday, we had some fresh snowfall overnight from Friday to Saturday so I could get Nancy out to the turn out area for her first outing. She was such a sweetheart and led like an angel, slowing down by voice command when I was worried about slipping (either of us).
L's horse O had already been out for a while when I got N out and it was their first time meeting - so we let them loose and stood back.

Absolutely fine, both said hello and both went on about their business. So I clipped the leadrope back on N and took her for a walk around the field so that she could get a feel for the place and see the space she had to roam in. Then let her loose to mosy about as I prepared the haynets from our stores. O stayed near me as I made the preparations as she knows the score, N went for an old wander on her own. Little Miss Independent :-)

Settling in well and considerably less tucked up

Another friend E came to meet the new arrival and we had a catch up chat as Nancy got to grips with the swinging haynets - they have tiny wholes and we have them hanging so that it takes them longer to access the hay so that they don't scoff it all too quickly. I left them to it as they were getting on fine and L had offered to give myself and another yard friend (N) a jumping lesson.
Went back up to the yard, popped Kika on the walker,arena we wanted wasn't free yet so I cleaned my stables and then went to help set up the fences.
Tacked up, then (human - this could get confusing in the future) N and I warmed our horses while L sorted her stable. Won't make a paint layout of the fences from yesterday - but all went well despite Kika getting a little strong for me at times and our final course having to be divied up and we had to return to trot between fences to keep everything calm. If only I could concentrate on the course and remember to sit my @$$ back in the saddle and ride between fences I'd be doing much better.
But following from last weekend's polework session, this was our first time jumping in over a month I'd say - so all in all it went very well I think! :-D

"What am I supposed to do with this?!"

Today dawned with freezing rain bouncing off my bedroom window. So out said window went my plan to turn Kika out for the day as the route to get to the field was all icy and the snow even had a layer of ice on it which at least made for interesting walking as you crunched through it - thankfully not so thick that you slid on top of it. But I still didn't want to risk K slipping en route and either doing serious damage and/or not being able to get back up due to the ice. So I popped her on the walker as L & I walked her dogs - as an aside the walk was much more tiring than usual as we had to do more leg lifting through the snow hahaha!

Getting the "hang" of it ;-)

Plan was for today to be Kika's day off and I was going to have my first spin on Nancy. And that's just what we did, tacked her up and lunged her for about 10minutes walk and trot transitions moving up and down the arena. She was listening well once she settled - so I asked L to hold her while I mounted off a mounting block. we weren't sure if she'd be used to that or not, so better safe then sorry. I also asked L to walk alongside us with the lunge line still attached around the arena once on each rein.
Meanwhile I was yabbering away nonesense at the poor horse, mostly to keep myself calm - darn nerves that came from nowhere.
I guess my sense of self-preservation is slightly more active then I give it credit for!

"I'm not so sure about this thing..."

L detached and N and I continued on our way around the arena, all went very smoothly. We kept it simple and short, only walk & trot with lots of circles and changing the rein across the diagonals. There is lots to work on, unfortunately for both of us her weaker side is also my weaker side - but at least in this way we can both work towards the same end goal, ;-)
She feels like she has a longer stride then Kika and her trot is deff bouncier than Kika's so that'll be fun to learn to sit when she has the muscled to support sitting trot work.

We're going to stick to walk & trot work under saddle until we help her learn to be more balanced in canter through loose lunging and on the lunge line before adding a riders weight to the mix. She is a very quick learner so I'll have to be very careful not to teach her the wrong things! When she first arrived she wasn't too fond of lifting her legs to have her hooves cleaned or having her mouth rinsed before working (has to be done as her molars are too close together and food may get compacted between them) she is getting better every day at both of these tasks. She is such a sweet girl and very affectionate - I hope we have many happy years together!