"Hi Jackie,
Tomorrow at 1:00 should be fine. She did not work today (Saturday) because it was so windy that the arena sounded like a foundering ship! She's been a little nervous of the arena noises and I find that, when it's as bad as it was today, the baby horses can't concentrate well enough to get over being worried. You end up either letting them get wound up or punishing them for being scared. Definitely a "discretion is the better part of valour" situation! We did some work in the barn instead.
We had our first fight yesterday - minor and normal but an important part of the process. Given her tendency to snark I knew it wasn't too far under the surface and I find it's better to get these things out of the way early, while the horse is still relatively unsure, rather than wait until she's metaphorically hanging out behind Becker's, smoking dope and stealing cars. She was reluctant to come in and then got annoyed when she had to go out as the other horses were being brought in. When we started to longe she squealed and jumped around to tell me how annoyed she was. Then she thought maybe she'd run for the door, back up, turn around etc. rather than doing this boring, stupid, going in circles crap. We got through it okay and finished with some driving and some ground work - just a few more exercises to underline the fact that this was not optional. As I said before I don't like to start a fight but every horse will object eventually (I mean really, why would they sign on for this riding thing, at least initially. Later it's more interesting and easier, so it makes more sense.) so better to deal with it early and quickly, with a minimum of fuss. Make compromise a habit for the horse.
So that's the update. Any bit in a 5" would do the trick - my choice is usually a "D" ring french link but I'm not wedded to that. If your coach will be working the horse we should go with her preference. At this age most horses don't know enough to care either way so it usually comes down to the rider's preference as to feel etc.
See you tomorrow,
R."
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