Finished Product

And here is the finished product...hand-painted frame, and personal photo. My grandmother had better like it!!

I forgot to mention that this photo is Promise sucking up after threatening to buck when I got on her. My mom was with me, to take the photos, and was picking on me for putting my helmet on, when I spent 30 minutes straightening my hair before we left the house (not that you can tell, because despite the cold, it was humid and rain clouds were looming overhead).

I looked at her and said, "Have you met my horse?" Well, good thing I put it on to get on her and let her walk and trot around a bit...because when she had gone about 5 steps from the mounting block, I felt her whole body gather beneath her and she was going to buck. I exhaled, sat deeper and said, "NO."

She listened, but after a couple seconds threatened again, so I firmly said, "No. No. No. Don't you DARE." She relaxed a little. "You can stand here as long as you like," I said, scratching and applying pressure with my knuckles to her withers, "But you are NOT going to act like a 3 year old. You're too old for this crap, cold or not."

So, we stood for a few seconds, I asked for her to release to the bit, by moving it around in her mouth, getting her to focus on something OTHER than her back, and then gently squeezed my legs and asked her to walk. She went a few steps then stopped, feeling less tense, but still thinking about bucking. I'll take standing over bucking, any day. I let her stand, fussed with the bit for a couple of seconds, and then asked her to walk again. Few steps, stop, give, walk. Then she was fine, and started jigging a little, so I let her trot around the ring a few times...after all, I needed her to stand still for pictures, and I needed to be able to take my helmet (and t-shirt covering my dress shirt) off.

I did spend quite a while massaging her before I tacked her up, and she was quite flinchy. I think the next time I go that it is that cold, I will throw a cooler over her while I am grooming and massaging, and give her muscles a little extra time to warm up...because I have a feeling it was mostly stiffness/coldness causing the exaggerated sore reactions, and that I didn't let her back warm up enough on the lunge line before I mounted. But, I will definitely be keeping an eye on it.