getting reacquainted

I finally got to spend some quality time with Isabel that WASN'T related to her flu. We're planning to start back under saddle this weekend, and it seemed in my best interest to assess whether she'd gone feral or not during her 3 weeks off. 

'mebbe. feral is fun' - isabel

Also, I had some new cool tack to try out. The gullet plate in my Bates dressage saddle needed switching and I opted to take it to our local saddler so he could do it right (and also show me how). Obvi I had to browse the consignment section too... esp since they have a great rewards system and I'd amassed quite a few points buying the saddle in the first place.

Turns out they happened to have a nice Horseware dressage bridle AND another Herm Sprenger KK Ultra loose ring that would be entirely covered by my rewards points. The only catch? The bridle is pony sized lol.

I took it for a trial anyway, and whadya know - it mostly fits! The throatlatch isn't quite what I would like, and the browband will need replacing... but the rest is actually ok. It's in nice condition too - plus I snagged some black webbed full size reins, so we're just gonna roll with it. Yay for free tack!!

Meanwhile, back to getting reacquainted... Isabel WAS actually kinda rude at first. It didn't help that all the fresh grass was practically perfuming the air and she was dizzied by it all... But mostly she was ok - nothing crazy, but definitely ready to run all over me if I let her. 

She hand grazed while I got as much loose hair off her as possible (with a quick vacuum break), then headed down to the arena. You can see in the pic above that there were lots of ground poles all over the place, and we walked around all of them, plus a raised cavaletti, plus generally just seeing if she'd stop when I stop and go when I go and follow me around without hesitation. 

The verdict? Brain still very much intact. Good girl. 

Also, I can't seem to resist standing her on that pedestal haha... It's kinda ridiculous, but whatever - she's listening to me and thinking and I derive childlike glee from it. So there. We also tried a few turns on the forehand. It's not something I've ever really worked on with her, so I tried to just get a couple good steps here and there without a lot of pressure. 

All in all tho it was some quality pony time. Isabel took quite a few deep breaths at different points - especially after walking up the steep hill back to the barn (that I practically made her crawl up at a snail's pace) - and there was exactly zero coughing. I'll take it!