What a good girl!!

I had high expectations for my ride today.  In my mind it was going to be filled with lots of cantering with my hair blowing in the wind, laughter and relaxation.  But that is not the ride that God had planned for me.  Instead it was a lesson in how far my horse, Shya, has come in the last 3 years.  We started off on our ride with horses milling all over the place and Shya's friend Indy was way in the front, out of her sight.  She is normally a pretty calm horse but this time she was dancing all over the place confused by all the chaos.  She trotted up and around all the other horses until she found Indy, but was soon separated from him again.  As we were going into the woods, I held her back and let the remainder of the horses pass us.  When we got into the woods she calmed down and became herself again.  We rode that way for a while, but when we got to a crossroads, she became second in line.  Normally this does not bother her but this time we were with gaited horses that kept trying to pass her.  She had one on either side of her rear end on a narrow trail, huffing and puffing, anxious to get by.  The old Shya would have had her ears pinned back and would have either humped up at them or backed up and kicked them, the most she did was an occasional "back off" look.  What a good girl.  I was more nervous than she was because we were rounding a corner with a drop-off all the way around it.  At this point we decided to stop for our picnic lunch.  In my last blog I bragged about the picket lines that were provided and how I wouldn't have to worry about tying her to a tree where she would rub off her halter bridle.  I have learned one must never brag because this spot did not have a picket line in sight.  I held her for a bit trying to decide what to do

Trying to decide what to do with Shya

 when finally I decided to just tie her to a tree.  She was unbelievably good and only rubbed a few times, not once rubbing her saddle and her halter bridle stayed on!  What a good girl!!  After we ate lunch I decided to have Shya lead for a while, but it was not in the cards.  Two of the riders decided that they wanted to be in the lead so they passed us on the right on a narrow trail saying "You didn't want to lead, did you".  I just looked at them in disbelief.  They are a couple that have ridden with us lots of time and one of them Shya had actually dive bombed when they had tried the same thing.  To my amazement, Shya let them pass without any drama!  What a good girl!!  Later down the trail we came across somebody's hunting dog that attached himself to our group.  Shya does not like dogs and will stomp them.  This dog rode with us for over half and hour running past Shya, in front of Shya, behind Shya and once stood right in front of Shya and made us stop.  She was so good, she would think about stomping him and I would just say "Shya" and tighten up on the reins a bit and she would stop.  What a good girl!  I am amazed by this Curly girl.  The progress she has made over the past few years is astounding and I really hadn't realized how far she had come until today.  What a good girl!!  And I love the RAC blog because putting it down in writing has made me realize so much more the difference in her.