The first Slybaby is a RIDER!

What a night! I picked up Slygirl after her first 30 days of training. I am not sure what I had expected, since I had gotten just good reports on her, but life cannot be all easy can it? Surely it was not all roses.



Mark this down as a shock to my system- she is GREAT! Susan (and Shawn put his time in) did a beautiful job with her. Just as Shawn was telling me that he was not thrilled with her progress at the lope, she busted out with a pretty, even, balanced lope that looked like she had been doing it for years.

My very favorite thing is that she is so relaxed, seems happy to do what you ask her to do, and enjoys it all. She is clearly a thinker, not a reactor, which is one of my favorite things about her daddy, and I am just tickled to death to see it in her. I honestly thought she would be one of the harder ones to start, since she has been allowed to get away with so much, but if this is as hard as it gets, we have struck gold!

The good and the bad of Susan's training program--as told by Slygirl

These geese are what is making her life hard--Susan says they have come to an understanding but it sounds more to me like Slygirl has decided to ignore them, and the geese have decided to not torture her. They agree to disagree I think. Hey whatever works!

And this is her reward after her lesson for the day--water hose drinking. It always cracks me up to see them do this, as it seems like they bite at the water, and this was a great picture Susan got.

So another day without significant incident!

This is almost surreal

This is pretty cool--my first hard evidence that Slygirl has not done something crazy like kill herself or Susan, since I dropped her off at the trainer last week. She has been there just a hair over a week, and has come to an understanding with the geese, and had her first solo flight tonight. She has been sat on with someone leading her until now, and this time, she did it all by herself.

I realize that most people do not judge how training is going by whether all the parties to the transaction are still alive, but I have had some crazy things go wrong in training ( a broken pelvis on Gypsy, for example), so to see them getting along so well this early does my heart good. I am just about to pop with pride at seeing my first Slybaby with a rider--WOW.

Now I cannot wait to see what kind of athlete Susan thinks she will be, but I am mostly thrilled that Slygirl is taking things well and not digging her feet in and sulling up like she has been known to do when she is not satisfied with the agenda.

GO SLYGIRL!

She is already rolling!

I love my updates from Susan about my silly horses. She is already moving right along with Slygirl--she has already been saddled and is accepting that just fine. She is still working on goose-proofing her, but she is making progress---you never know when you will need that little skill!

Slygirl goes to the trainer!

Well it has started--I dropped Slygirl off with Susan to have her started last nite. This is the first Slybaby I have sent to training, so this is big stuff for me---now is when we find out if he is the sire I believe he is. This filly is nothing like either of her parents in temperament, which concerns me some, as they are two of my best natured, obedient horses.

I put off having her started until this year as she was just too little last year--that happens with some of Gyro's kids, I have no idea why. But it was finally time to pull the trigger.

I know she is in the right hands with Susan--she will discipline her but be patient with her. Slygirl is one you have to convince that she wants to do what you say--you cannot force her into anything, and that is right up Susan's alley. She does a wonderful job with young ones.

Cross your fingers that they mesh well and Slygirl is all that she should be--just dialed back a notch, perhaps!