I rode back into the paddock on Alexa after a nice long ride with her. I try to exercise all of my Nera's atleast once a week. I was feeling particularly good today and so I decided to finish everyone for the week. "Alright, that's Alexa's practice" I said to myself, checking her off on my mental checklist. I had one more Nera to train, Eloisa. I hadn't intentional put Eloisa last, she was just the newest and it was taking me longer to come up with things to do for her. She seemed so ready for everything I threw at her, she was really excelling at her training and connecting really well with me. Today was no exception, in fact she seemed a bit better than normal, if that was possible. She was also obviously independent, which sometimes made things more difficult when she didn't want to do training that she seemed to think of as 'boring'. Today I knew there was no possibility that I would get my way against Eloisa. I sighed and decided my best chance with her would be to try something totally new.
I picked up Eloisa's saddle, now perfectly used to the heavy weight and overall bulkiness of it. I showed it to Eloisa for a small amount of time before setting it on her back. I didn't want to give her too big of a heads up, who knows what she would have done if she actually knew what was happening. She pinned her ears and nipped at the saddle, probably out of more shock than anything. I soothed her and gave her a large vole which she happily accepted. Soon she seemed to relax, accepting the feel of the saddle on her back. I smiled, I had been right, she had taken the saddle with confidence. I gave her another vole before taking the saddle off and putting it back in the tack room, wondering what Eloisa had in store for me next.
