Stop? Go? Left? Right? WHA?

I could just hear these questions being screamed by our newest addition, Kazzie, as we attempted to gallop around the daunting track this morning. Actually I could hear them long before we even left the barn. She is a beast of a filly, built like a brick s*** house, and easily 300 lbs overweight at this point. She questions everything, has to stop and look, and is generally just a big goober about life. We went out with S and Sought, somehow managed to back up...naturally when we got to the wire, someone starting banging around in the grandstand, which put us on the inside rail staring up at the stands with the biggest eyes in the world. Sigh. Managed to turn around and got going into a little gallop, which quickly turned into a slam-on-brakes stop, then a gallop towards the inside fence, then another stop, then a really fast gallop to catch up with Sought, then another duck inside, then some nice jolting bucks...weeeeee. She made it past the gate at a jog, then back to a gallop, and by the end I was at least "posting the canter", not quite trusting her enough to actually stand up on her. Made it to the 5/8th's pole, pulled her up...EEEERRRKKKK....tried to turn her around, she froze up in the middle of the track, then decided she didn't want to leave just yet....spun around and took off the other way...finally got her back to Nat who caught her and led her enormous prancing self back to the barn. Phew, made it.

Impossible to get mad at her though. Not a mean bone in her body, ears never went back, and although she constantly hesitated she DID make it around in one piece. Obviously tomorrow will be a telltale day of whether or not she learned anything. Since she's an extra horse and our grooms are all booked, I get to rub her for a couple of days...which makes me happy, because I like to have everything to do with her, so I can get inside her head a little bit. She happily munched on lunch while I brushed her and did her up, stood very well for everything (except for hoof picking, which she will need work on). Hopefully she will remember the track tomorrow and be a bit more willing to gallop on and listen to me. We shall see!

God Bless!