Walking along

As we made progress going down the driveway and back, a few others at the barn had noticed what was going on and how I have been working with my mare in getting this accomplished. They have seen that while I am not letting her get away with anything, I'm also not asking for anything more than my horse can handle either.

The other night after working her in long lines, I hopped on her to walk her around and cool her out. Since blogger L. Williams has been having lunge line lessons and learning a lot, I figured I would work on me a little in the round pen since I don't have anyone to keep my mare on a line or anywhere to really do it otherwise. I dropped my reins on my mare's neck and put my hands on my waist. It was kind of weird not having reins in at least one hand. A few laps around the round pen without the reins, moving her on and off the rail using only my legs, I figured why not go down the driveway?

We now go thru the gates without me having to dismount so we did that and headed down the driveway. Mostly I was planning to leave my mare alone and not pick at her, as long as we were moving and she kept it at a walk. She did really well and walked all the way down the driveway. Coming back, she kept it at a walk almost all the way. It was a quick walk, but it was still a walk. I kept my hand on the buckle of the reins, my legs hanging close to her sides and enjoyed the walk back to the barn.