I think Little Love is missing K, who is away for the weekend. When I went to get her from the paddock today, I had the distinct feeling that she was asking "Hey, where's my person? I miss her and want to see her." Luckily K will be back today, so Lilo will get her wish first thing tomorrow morning. This is what I told her, and she seemed to be OK with making due with me another day. :-)

I decided to practice long reining again, and Lilo seemed to be OK with that. In fact, she seemed happy about it, even though I know it must be frustrating for her sometimes to put up with my clumsiness. I promised her we would trot, which I know she likes to do, so that helped.

I'm happy to report that I am making steady improvement, although I still feel like my hands and my body and my brain are working on different wavelengths in this process. But no one ended up in the ditch today (yes, this happened last time!), and we even managed to get some good trot in, as promised. Our trot sessions were short and sweet, but it was so nice to see and feel Little Love stretching herself down in lifting her back. Honestly, in the trot work, I had to do nothing but keep up and keep the reins out of the way. This horse has learned through her work with K how good it feels to stretch down and raise her back, and she offers it completely on her own now.

After the long reining, we took a short walk. Again Little Love asked to go into the forest, this time onto the narrow trail where the "bridge incident" took place not long ago. We walked in to the bridge and then, since we haven't yet figured out how to circumvent the slippery bridge, turned around and walked back out. Just like that. Amazing how much a horse can continue to change in such a short time!

-- Melissa