Sadie shows she is a young MARE

I rode Sadie last night with L on Lady. Sadie had some young mare moments but never got wild. She has an awesome power walk and trot. Thats my condensed FB entry.

We went about 3.5 miles. Sadie was very cranky at one point when alongside of Lady. Pinned ears and a few ugly faces. A bit later she was in front and was swinging her butt to block Lady from being able to come alongside or pass. So L rode behind for a bit because I told her Sadie is so green I probably couldn't keep her from kicking out. She moves off my leg some but not reliably that I could swing her butt the other way to prevent kicking. Then a bit later Sadie thought something was scary in the water in the ditch, went into the CRP alongside and was circling --I was not going to let her think I'll just go home if she does this kind of thing. L and Lady led for a ways and then Sadie went back to wanting to be in front. Someone told me once that green mares like to be in front to feel safe. Shade wanted to get in front of a group when she was green too although she didn't get the 'tude to make mare faces till she was older and I would always put her at the back of the group when she did that.

Sadie does have an awesome swingy ground eating walk. She trotted quite a ways in the lead and kept up a good steady pace even though she felt like she was thinking OMG I've never been here before and its kind of scary. She did buck a little bit when L and Lady were in front and started trotting on the single path trail that is fairly overgrown with grass. I am glad I did not take her out on the poker ride but overall I am pretty happy because even when she was bucking it was just crowhopping and not anything that would fling me off, and later when we on the way home I made her stay behind Lady. There were a few spots she wanted to follow and then I held her back when she wanted to take charge again.