Someone Else Rode Sunny!

So day 3 of the Linda Delvallegarcia Heywood clinic was AWESOME!! I will make a complete post about the whole clinic once I get the rest of the photos and videos sorted. Sunny was great though, she had time to think about the standing martingale, and was much more calm and relaxed on Sunday, and we got some good stuff accomplished. Here's the video of Linda riding her. I was kind of impressed Sunny didn't *totally* freak or try to buck her off, but Linda is a super tactful rider, and I saw her ride a few other horses at her last clinic, and she definitely can handle the shit, so I wasn't too worried. I did warn her that no one else had ever ridden her, and that she would rear and buck if provoked.
 

After she got off Linda gave me MAJOR credit for how I ride Sunny, she said you have to be WAY softer and more subtle than you'd think! And that you can't fight with her or force her or she'd starting balling up and you can tell she'd blow, which is exactly right. Said that I have done a great job with her, she was fairly responsive to the leg and hand, but needed more submission to really accept the bit like she should. Super difficult horse to ride, and she commended me for sticking with it, because even though Sunny "is the devil" (in her words), she is INSANELY talented and can jump her way out of anything. And everyone was surprised when Linda commented how much leg she had to use on Sunny, that's one thing I have made sure of from day 1, I would be SCREWED if I couldn't put my leg on that damn horse, lol. And apparently I talk so much when I ride that Sunny instantly drops her head when you say "Good girl" and I've made her super responsive to my voice without realizing it. So Linda said to just keep doing what I'm doing, working on submission and bending and lots of lateral work, and everything will come eventually.

So yeah, pretty darn cool to finally see someone else up on Sunny:)