Finding motivation in the little things...

So my little superstar has been a bit of a chestnut mare lately. Carried a dressage whip for the first time yesterday. Didn't use it of course, but just the fact that I can carry it now is HUGE -- when I first got here even anybody ELSE carrying a crop of any sort was enough to send her spinny. Now she was aware of it, but she let me pat her all over with it while I was sitting on her and didn't have a meltdown so I was pretty excited about that. N in a strange twist of events, it turns out Miss Sienna is *significantly* more confident jumping out of a canter than a trot -- the only problem, of course, being that she doesn't have the strength to do that. hahaha ah well, now @ least I have hopes :) All we need to do is build up her flat work till she *does* have the strength to maintain the canter and we'll be set :) woohoo! It's amazing how such a tiny glimmer of something good can entirely re-vitalize my dedication. hahaha