Sherwood got rave reviews yesterday from Kristin, who posted on Facebook immediately after, "Quietest off the track mare I have ever met! Sooo sweet!"

Kristin thinks she's good to go to work since she's happily adjusting to her new home, so we started on 10 minutes of lunging today- W/T and whoa commands. Our homework is 10 minutes of lunging to solidify those commands, as well as working on leading skills and cross-tying. I need to get legit cross-ties bc the ones in the aisle are scary. Who uses chains as cross ties? Don't get me started!

She was so cute when I crept into her paddock today- playing beached whale in the sand and pretending she didn't see me walk in and sit down with some homework.

She lay there for another 15 minutes before getting up- seriously, what happened to spooky, crazy racehorses? I don't know. But I'll take it! It was kind of fun watching her puff sand everywhere and obviously just love her life of leisure. Then she proceeded to come over and snuffle all around me eating her hay while we wait for Kristin to show up.

Here, you can see Kristin after she evaluated Sherwood and came to the decision that... this horse is settled in, calm and content, her ankles and legs look awesome- cool, tight and without swelling- and... let's keep her going while she's got a work ethic! So... we tested out her lunging skills. And.. this is about 2 minutes after starting. Kristin was impressed and I was ecstatic.

Update: We put her on one chain crosstie and I had Dennis hold the lunge from her other side while I curried, picked feet, and sprayed some bug spray around her. She was fine with everything. No hysterics, no sidling, a little bit of front and back during bug spraying, but... I'm thinking she's either a dream come true or just waiting for her moment.

We also did our 10 minutes of lunging today, and she's voice command solid W/T to the left, solid W on the right, and a bit more sticky with T, but honestly. It's our second day. What do you expect? Perfection?? She is really starting to understand about disengaging her hindquarters in both directions, and flexing her neck, and backing up is getting pretty solid. She still mows you down if she's not paying attention, but it's already improving!

We also found out that I had a sheet for her- so when it rains tomorrow, if it gets cool, she's all set! Thanks Danielle!! We also threw down some ground poles in the arena so she could check them out while she's in it and... she leapt over the two I put down, but then gave us a GORGEOUS trot over three!

Yay! I have an awesome mare!