Progress in inches, not miles

Month three with Stella Bella Stella zoomed by, and here we are well into month four. Even as my life has changed little in that time, the world has turned upside down in many ways, which creates an undercurrent of stress. I am thankful to be able to continue to work with my horses, as they are an excellent diversion even if there isn't much visible progress.


There has been a wee bit of pasture time, something that has to be extremely limited in this season of rapid growth that can cause horses to founder – especially a metabolic syndrome horse like Lance.

I continue to ride Lance as often as possible to keep both of us in some semblance of riding shape and to help manage his metabolic condition. The arena footing was* getting trashed by Miss Stella's antics + weather conditions, so we were going down the gravel lane and back a lot, dodging (and sometimes absorbing) raindrops, and enjoying vistas, occasional sunsets, and even the 'supermoon' together. Now it's getting dry enough to cut through the neighbor's lot to ride on the gravel lane through the woods, too. Last Sunday I took that route specifically to look for my favorite wildflowers. I found ONE clump of wild iris, one of its several buds unfurling.

So what of my black beauty? There has been near-daily turn-out or lunging, with and without stirrups (yesterday I tried it with just stirrup leathers). Stella is still incredibly touchy about things moving along her sides, but her trust in me has noticeably improved outside of that. Catching her is never an issue anymore and she chooses to engage with me now. She has gained a little weight and lost a LOT of winter hair.

I have encouraged Brian to interact with Stella, because I want to use him as a training assistant. He turned her out for me a couple weeks ago and I got some cute photos of them together:

*You can see how pitted the arena was in the photos above. Stella not only makes good use of her turn-out time to run and buck, she also liked to paw in the puddles, making them deeper. Thankfully Brian helped me drag the arena and now the footing is MUCH better. But other than that and cleaning stalls (his twice-daily responsibility), I haven't been able get Brian to help me, so I forged on alone.

Before I even brought her home, I was hoping to use Lance to pony Stella for exercise and exposure. But the way Lance acted when he got loose in the arena with her that one time gave me huge pause. Would it be safe to try and manage both her and him from the saddle? Could I even manage to mount Lance while holding Stella's lead rope? There was only one thing to do: try.

Well as you can see, I not only managed to mount, but we successfully navigated our driveway, making several trips up, down and around. Lance was as good as gold, even when Stella got in 'his' space. I've since ponied her a couple times in the arena, where I feel more comfortable stretching her comfort zone a little. She startles when I  move my legs on Lance's sides or swing the end of her lead rope around, but I'm hoping that because Lance doesn't react and nothing bad happens to her, she'll settle. I'd like to take her off property, too, but only if one of our Western saddles, with a horn to dally to, fits Lance.

It's a long, slow process, but I truly believe that going about training Stella this way is best, and have had encouraging confirmation along the way. I shared the above video screenshot on Instagram/Facebook yesterday and a friend commented, "She is a frisky one. Will you actually be able to ride her?" The answer, I believe, is an unequivocal "Yes." Can I say when? No. Inch by inch; we'll get there.

These were taken yesterday. I have videos, but don't have them uploaded to YouTube yet. For now I'm headed out to pony Stella again!