Kindly Kika

I was beginning to think that I had jinxed myself with the Monster Mare No More post; but Kika stepped up to the plate and was back to being her new norm for this evenings spin.

For those who don't follow me on insta,
we have our second snow

We still had some sidestepping and tension with the odd eyes-on-stalks moments, but there was a lot more relaxed work in between. I even managed to slow our walk with my seat at one stage, by concentrating on my breathing and slowing my rocking in the saddle to slow her stride - talk about a light bulb moment as pulling off her face to try to slow her down when she winds herself up is just playing with fire seeing as she could very easily (and understandably) take offence and tell me to F off in her own lovable (sarcasm) way.

Sorry for darkness of captures but SNOW PONIOS
(i didn't want to use flash and create alien eyes)
 #sorrynotsorry

We just covered the basics, but as we did them well i called it quits after 20ish minutes. Walk/halt transitions with changes of rein thrown in and lots of vocal praise the few times she halted without stretching her neck and pulling the reins through my fingers. We also had no qualms today with approaching the side to rid ourselves of my coat & her quarter sheet. Nice soft trot work with 10m circles tossed in for funsies if she tried to s - shape squirm from the sides to reinstall our bend. She did those very well when also mixed into our serpentines, they actually had a relaxing effect on the pair of us. Somehow I manage to better maintain my outside rein contact when circling vs going in a straight line...am I complicated or what?!

Pre warm up mirror selfie as Kika giraffed at something

First bit of canter work on our bad side was divine, or at least it felt that way - what it looked like besides the glimpses i got briefly in the mirror is anyone's guess as i don't think anyone was around to see - thankfully in a way as i ride like a plank if i think someone is watching. A change of rein later and someone lost her marbles for our supposed good side canter. Not misbehaving scaring the bejaysus out of me marble loss - just hollowed choppy disconcentrated (yes I make up words) canter. So after 3 20m she wasn't relaxing for me so we worked on some trot/canter transitions till I got the soft response i wanted a couple of times before we went back to soft trot work serpentines.

Post-work satisfied companionship selfies,
I was glad of quarter sheet this evening to wrap around me too

I hesitate to hope this will return to the norm, as perhaps she was just in a more zen state after spending some time this afternoon running around the turnout like a looper with Nancy due to the introduction of the Guru's new mare. The new horse apparently stood out of the way bemused as my two haired around like muppets taking full advantage of the excuse to go a bit apeshit. Sadly no pictures as i wasn't there and L had to keep her hands free incase things got hairy and she had to rescue her new girl from my monsters.

Snowy-monsters...it might be time i add on the neck covers ;-)

It may surprise people to hear that apparently Nancy was the nastier of my two in "welcoming" the new girl in that wonderful way horses do by causing a fuss to establish the pecking order. Methinks Nancy was tired of being the bottom rung on the ladder and she has decided that this new youngster shall not be sneaking ahead of her now that she has gotten used to being Kika's #2 in their massive herd of 2 *eye-roll*
Horses eh?!