It’s more just that “hey, you’re ok alone, you can work it out with your own brain”. And yes, they see me as the only thing they need.
I forgot there was a bridge out there. Just to see what she would do, I asked her to step on it first, then I would follow. She thought about it, and went for it! Good girl!
I believe DJ’s tack in Morris is still open. I haven’t used him (no need to) but have heard good things about him.
greys
I didn’t even know there was something out there it’s about an hour and a half from me. But if I have a few things to get adjusted, it’s worth the trip!
As you work though your tack fitting saga, Bobby’s Tack has their measurements on their site: https://bobbystack.com/sizing/
I have never purchased anything from them, but I know others rave about their tack.
Found the first training hole! Things touching the butt. She will allow it while standing, walking, but trotting is a NOPE.
Figured that out by doing all the pre flight checks for ground driving, all good, start ground driving, all good, then she picks up a trot by accident and BOOM. I let her go, eff that. She ran a lap and gave up, but was intent on kicking at any rope that dare touch her butt
SCHREEEEEECH goes the training. Back to the basics! Grabbed a lunge whip and let her figure out that kicking and bucking doesn’t make the touch go away, nor does the touch actually hurt her.
Will work on it more tomorrow.
LOL! That’s how I got the baby Evil Princess over fly spray in one easy session.
“Go ahead, trot around me on the lead rope for 15 minutes while you get spritzed with water, Missy. I can do this all day.” 
(Before anyone accuses me of Baby Princess Abuse, this wasn’t her first introduction to being sprayed. I went slowly and deliberately for several weeks. But she was a redhead and didn’t care to be made to endure something that irritated her.)
I need to use a heavier rope. Little stinker was so good at bucking the lunge rope onto her back, she “won” twice before I said “nope, need an equipment change!”.
I imagine blanketing her for the first time is going to result in some theatrics. I’ll make sure to do the first 10 or so outside so if she feels the need to blow she can go on ahead and do it.
A pool noodle works really good for bouncing a touching the back end, especially when you add food. It’s heavier than a rope but they cant hurt themselves with it. Then you can loop rope through it and use it like breeching.
Good idea, I’ve got some in the loft I think! I was just going to put a heavy yacht rope on the surgingle, her tail being over the rope will prevent a lot of the kicking it over her back.
No rush. She just surprised me by passing the preflight checks and then changing her mind lol. Vapor lock!
Pool noodle was a success. She didn’t care about it being bounced all over. She didn’t care about a plastic bag on a stick all over. She didn’t care about dragging a rope on the inside or outside of a circle.
But when I tied it around her booty like loose breeching we had another attempt at a boom. This time I was ready and sat on the rope hard to get her to rethink the bolt and she was a little scrunchy for a minute but settled. We went both ways walk and trot for about 10 minutes and called it. When I’d grab the rope and pull it tight across her bum she’d still scrunch just a tiny bit, so there’s more work to be done, but much better overall. Good girl, Grundy!
We then went to visit my husband in the garage doing his thing and got to hear spray paint cans get shaken and watched him start the box pile on fire. She was more nervous about the spray paint rattle than the fire. Horses can be weird!
Well, I’d say the 66" blankets fit well enough (had to be careful, she was starting to scrunch butt and i didn’t want her to whoop it into the dirt in case it didn’t fit… I had pre-flight checked her with one of the Old Man’s blankets but didn’t want to take chances!)
The large pony neck rugs are too big, the large pony halter is too small, and I’m unhappy with every dressage girth I’ve ordered. They either are on the last holes or hit her elbows.
Dammit Grundy. This is getting expensive and frustrating.
Shopping for ponies is like shopping for women’s pants…who the hell knows what size is gonna fit no matter what the tag says!
My favorite ridiculous sizing situation was a 60” Amigo fly sheet with attached neck. Pony has several winter blankies in that size/brand combo so when the fly sheet arrived I assumed it would be fine so ripped the tags off and plunked it on her door before going out of town for a week. Color me shocked when I got a text from my trainer that Pony’s sheet is too big. Turns out that the body was fine but the neck part was so long it went all the way over her face. Like it was over a foot too long. Pony maybe has a short-ish neck for her size but she’s not that stubby! The pics I got were hysterical. But of course I’d already taken the tags off and thrown away the packaging so I took scissors to it, detached the neck and it functions. And now I’m never ever buying anything without a detachable neck!
Fwiw, when I had one about this size, with similar challenges in fitting tack, I really liked the wintec dressage girths for her. They come in wee sizes, and they’re (fairly) inexpensive.
It’s not so much the size, it’s that when you get it at a good place on the billets, the buckles are right at her elbows. I think honestly she would do better with a short billet dressage saddle, but I refuse to go that far down the rabbit hole at the moment. I may just have to settle for being on the last holes for right now, to keep the buckles at the height they need to be.
If you’re still in the searching for bridles department, I thought of you this weekend. Someone dumped a bunch of Arabian tack at my local consignment tack store - I wouldn’t have known except it was all labeled, and holding up the Arabian bridles next to a regular Horse bridle made it really obvious there was a size differential. They tended to use thinner strap leather and no bulky nosebands, but I also noticed that the cheek pieces were SHORT comparatively speaking, while there was still a lot of depth in the noseband length.
There was also a Bob Hart bridle which I had never seen before, and the bridle leather was nice, on par with Tory tack. It made me do some googling when I got home and it looks like Bob Hart has a line for Arabians:
https://www.sstack.com/victor-supreme-bob-hart-training-bridle/p/41451/
I remember the old style Courbette bridles always fit my funky headed cob who had a headshape like Grundy. Regular bridles would swim on him. The thinner strap leather was flattering on his odd shaped head. Might be worth seeing if you can find any local.
Tomorrow night is going to be cold, so today was blanketing day. We had a two lap freak out and shes pissed at me, but we survived and she’s alright now.
Sorry Grundy Pony. Time to grow up and not be a heathen child in a mud pit anymore.
Awe. That’s so sweet. She has her own emotional support squishy pony! Grundy is cute is her new clothes.
You can see Grundy’s mad at me face. “Fine! I’ll stand with Shayney, even though she’s mean to me!”
Grundy got a halter thrown at her today for acting like a turkey coming in from the pasture, too. She was trying to mug my pockets, got shoved off, copped an attitude and swung her butt at me, and got her halter whooped at her. She was saaasssyyyyyy today. She is definitely feeling better haha
Your girls are quite beautiful. I am loving the Grundy stories 
What a personality!
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