While we were up at Cindi's camp yesterday she let me know I was welcome to her Klimke while she plays around with her new Jon Lyons western saddle. I was so happy, I love this saddle!! It was what I bought when I was competing Poke. It didn't fit Bagira so I sold it to finance his saddle when Poke retired. I kick myself constantly for doing so...
It fits Gracie beautifully and is like a couch to sit in. Sigh. My a** is indebted to Cindi for loaning it to us! Having it here meant holiday was over for Gracie-Girl. I feel like she has had plenty of adjustment time and loads of love and attention... so work began today!
We took it VERY easy, just mostly walking up and down the driveway with Beau along for company. We did some laps around the lawn with a little loose trot work and went down the back trail; just to the first intersection. Grace was ready to go, very forward thinking but never put a foot wrong! She was a bit tense, I think she was waiting to be asked to "do" something. But, I just wanted it to be no stress: just checking tack (she was a tad fussy to bridle- which we knew might be a problem... so after we ride, we rebridled 2 more times just to practice. Should be easy to work thru!) and thinking about being a riding horse! I had to go fetch them from the far side of the field, it was a sunny, beautiful cool day with a nice breeze, I'm sure these two would have rather just grazed... but they did really well!
In fact, Grace was so good Olivia hopped on for a bit. She walked her and trotted maybe 10 strides. She loved her! They have been working on the ground and in the trailer, so I know it was fun to actually sit on her. Olivia has been very dedicated to Grace and has been very good with her. It's fun to have a new horse to work with! 
Olivia's big project is trailer loading Grace. I worked a few days when she first got here, but mostly Olivia has taken over the job of walking Grace onto the ramp once a day. The goal has been to just make it a happy place and try for getting her front feet in. We were getting quite good at that, and the past 3 days she has gone all the way in! I'm so proud of these girls, they are making great progress. It helped when we started timing their sessions to just before supper- she goes in for her grain and it pretty happy in there. I don't think it will be too long before we've got this licked! I makes me chuckle as we were told it took a group of folks 8 hours (and multiple doses of meds) to load her once... sorry, my 13 year old is doing much better with some patience and cookies! I'm so glad her previous owner (Hi Sherry!) had the good senses to know that that was NOT the way to get this girl loaded! So, while Bill was playing with his new toy we had a great day with Grace!
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