Yesterday I posted a picture of a 5-year-old Andalusian mare I'm starting under saddle. The picture was of her first day trotting. It was her third ride, but the first day I'd picked up the trot. In the photo she is hanging her head, swinging her legs and really loose in the back. I went on to say that she's the type of mare that's quite sensitive, and can easily be triggered into anxiety (hyperarousal) or freeze (hypoarousal), and I've spent a lot of time preparing her to be ridden. She is the

Several days ago I posted a video taken on my phone of a 5-year-old Andalusian mare I am starting. The video was taken from above her, where I was sitting on her bareback, having got on from the fence. My post pointed out that I had been working on that for 8 days, and that was the first time the mare had stood perfectly still while I sat on her. Some people might say "8 days! That's a bloody long time to spend just trying to sit on her off the fence". But I believe it was 8 days well spent. In