I really needed to get out for a ride today as next weekend is shotgun hunting season for deer so I will not be riding. And I didn't get out yesterday as I had too many things I needed to get done. Today was the better day to ride anyway as it was warmer. A real nice day actually. The sun came out just as I was heading to the barn and it had warmed up to sweatshirt weather.
Lily came to me when I called as usual. I love this about her. She's always ready for whatever adventure I have in mind. I took my time and gave her a long slow grooming. Another thing she absolutely loves. Lily is extremely good about standing still to be tacked up. She was not that good when I first got her. I decided that instead of "getting after" her to make her stand still, I would stop and get real quiet and not make a big deal of it. When she stood, I'd praise her and scratch her in all her favorite spots. Just making being saddled a good experience. She was green broke when I got her having only been ridden a handful of time by Anthony who I know did not hurt her in any way. So, I have the advantage of Lily not having to overcome any bad experiences. Lily also really likes to sniff what I'm putting on her. That was actually a big part of her standing still for me. Once she sniffs the blanket and then the saddle, she is much happier. Once I had her saddle on, I fitted her new crupper to her. I had to punch a few extra holes in it to get it to fit as expected. I took her out into the driveway and asked her to trot in hand. She does this very well now. She trots out as soon as I cue her to do so. Though she still reminds me with one pinned ear that she is still disgusted at me for using a crop to tap her with when training for this. She is right, I should have been more patient and found better ways to communicate with her what I wanted. But we are making progress towards her forgiving me. She only pins one ear now instead of both.
We then worked on a few things I want her to learn, and I listened to her and let her teach me what I need to do to communicate with her. Lily is a smart girl and she is willing to do what I ask. But she is not very patient with my mistakes. She is forgiving but not patient. Lily is teaching me to not just get bigger and stronger with the cues I'm using, but to evaluate the cues I'm using first and adjust them to keep them light and keep her responsive.We are working on learning to side pass. She has been doing fairly well but today she braced right up and pushed into my leg. So, after a few tries, I stopped and evaluated what I was doing and why it was causing her to react the way she was. We started again and I changed my cues a bit, mostly what I was doing with my hands and it was a success.
Today I decided to head out onto the trail down the steep hill path. For some reason Lily has an issue with this path. She will leave the barn on the north trail without hesitation or towards my house also. But locks up when asked to go down the steeper path. I just led her down the path as there is a good mounting rock at the bottom of the hill. And as expected, she locked right up at the start of the path. So, again I worked on really watching her body language and watching for signs of her getting ready to blow up and stopping before that happened and just keeping quiet and relaxed myself. I'd stop asking her to move and just wait for that moment of her relaxing a little bit before asking her to move again so it didn't escalate into a fight. She didn't know what to think at first as she was expecting to be pushed into moving. I'd wait for the slight head drop and a sigh and I'd softly ask her to move. After the first few steps, she softened up and we slowly made our way to the bottom of the hill. At the bottom of the hill, I scratched and patted her and thanked her for really trying for me. Mules absolutely love having their efforts acknowledged.
We only rode 4 miles but it was a lovely 4 miles. The sun came out and the woods were so quite and peaceful. We spotted quite a few deer. Lily would point them out to me. Sometimes she would stop and watch them for a moment. Not with any concern, just simple curiosity. Lily loves to check out the scents on the trail. Most equines I've ridden will try to stop and smell equine poop when some is found as does Lily, but it's much more than that for her. She just loves to smell everything along the way. It's kind of like riding a dog. I let her do this as long as she keeps moving along and stays straight on the trail. At one point when we were in a particularly open area on the way home with good sight all around us, Lily stopped and was just looking all around. Completely calm and relaxed. She just seemed to be enjoying the beauty of the wood in whatever way a mule does that. It caused me to do the same and we both really enjoyed the moment. With Lily I'm finding a nice balance of teaching her there are some things she has to do simply because I ask her to whether she likes it or not. But also allowing her to express her opinions in acceptable and safe ways or to make requests such as standing quietly in the woods for just a moment to drink in the beauty of it. This mule has given me a true gift by being such a steady solo riding partner. I want her to enjoy our rides as much as I do. Not all days will be this good. We will have our moments. But the good days are already so far outweighing the few tough days. This mule is going to be one of the really good ones.
I finally got some decent picture of the rock formation that is very close to my house. About 4/10th of a mile. And a few nice shots of the creeks by the rocks there in Thacker Hollow. It was a short but truly lovely ride.
