I'm progressing her education in a bosal hackamore (see bitting and bridling tab for more on this), an easier translation from the halter with two reins. We're building on the understandings established both on the ground (over the past 9 months) and with the ridden halter work (from the last 2 months) to combine forwards steps, lateral bends to a one rein stop, hind yields, back ups on two reins and yielding the shoulders with a reaching step. The latter movement is the foundation for work such as pirouette in dressage, or roll back in Western traditions, and helps to teach the horse to shift its weight back with lightness.  My job is to help her translate these movements while she's also balancing the additional weight of a rider, while also keeping her mindset positive, and our partnership sweet and connected. 

As she is still a developing young horse (she's rising 4) the sessions continue to be short and focused (about 10-20 minutes of ridden work after 5-10 minutes of groundwork) and she is rewarded for every single positive attempt or 'try' she offers by having a full release of any pressure at all. I ride her at most 2 times a week. We continue to mix the ridden work sessions in with walks out in hand, trailer training, liberty work, obstacles, and other confidence building activities on the ground, so she is usually having 3-4 sessions of work/adventure/connection per week.

The weekend before her 4th birthday, we got a last minute spot on a camp with my trainer which included groundwork and ridden (if appropriate) sessions over 3 days.  This was a big step for us both to travel from home and see where things were at in a new place. Sky settled in and made friends, but this bonding made taking her away to have lessons a little challenging. She was quite spicy in her groundwork, and so we focused on managing her feet, getting her mind and trying to bring her back to a place of calmness and learning. I sat on her briefly all three days, but the final day was where things felt a little more peaceful and she started to unstick her feet a little, and move into more of a learning frame of mind.

After returning home and having a day off, I worked her in the arena for a short session. Her groundwork was smooth and flowing and when I hopped on board there it was! Lightness moving forwards and backwards in walk, steering from the leg and a sweet connection between us. A couple of steps of trot from a lift in my diaphragm, and down into walk as I relaxed. It was an incredible moment! The next steps will be documented in a separate page now we've crossed this threshold so please see the page called 4-5 years for more ridden developments.