Today khajja_meezer and I got off our collective duff and worked with the mares a little bit. My major goal was to test saddle fit, hoping to find among our three saddles (hers, mine, and one I had on trial) at least one saddle that would work for Petit Point and another for Capucine. Unfortunately, my dressage saddle doesn't work for either of them (restuffing the panels might help, but to heck with that, I'd rather sell it). Hers is a maybe for Capucine, and the new one seems to be very nice on both of them (go figure).

Now, I was fairly certain Capucine had been ridden quite a bit, but I've never ridden her (or had anyone else try her out). So the next goal was to see where she was at with a saddle and bridle. Saddling appeared old hat, with a couple of evil-eyed moments and attempted nips when tightening khajja_meezer's saddle, so we took that one off and switched to the new one. Worked with her on the ground next, and though she was somewhat nervous (understandably, since all of this is Not Routine, and horses are all about Routine), she did give me some good circles and halts on request, with a couple of nice moments of softness in among the nervousness and concern.

Once I got around to bridling her, I was sure, because she reached for the bit -- and then spent the next 10 minutes waggling it around; for one, the headstall (a COB sized headstall, sigh) is a bit big for her, and for two I am fairly certain she's never had a French link snaffle to play with. Anyway, did a tiny bit of ground work with that (me at her side asking her to walk, and then cuing a stop with the bit), and while she was not Ms. Stop On A Dime, it was obvious that the bit meant something to her. Did some backing, too. Consulted with khajja_meezer at this point, and decided this was a good quitting point, as we were running out of light, and better to quit while everyone was happy and calm.