Accomplishment.

Now, I'm not one to make a big deal out of nothing (hehe), but I'd like to take a minute to celebrate something that is a pretty huge deal to me: I have succeeded in teaching my new pony how to pivot in hand. YES. It needs polish, of course, but last night we did about 7/8 of a turn before I stopped her. Her half pivots are pretty rockin', so I just wanted to see how much further we could go. Fortunately, Sienna took no offense to my squeals of joy in her ear.

Why is this so HUGE? Well, never having been interested in showmanship before, I never saw a need to teach Chica how to pivot. I thought it was a cool thing to be able to do, but she moves her hindquarters and shoulders away from me when asked, and that serves its purpose. When I started trying to teach her how to pivot, it was like trying to teach someone who only spoke R'lyehian how to formulate the hypothesis of the space-time continuum. Just like that. However, with Sienna, it clicked into place. I'm not really sure why; maybe it's because she's a lot touchier than Chica is. In any event, teaching Sienna is helping me to teach Chica, which is exciting. Hopefully she'll be pivoting her way around the yard soon enough, too.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some video tonight! I forced my roommate to come outside last night so she could watch us pivot around, and Sienna didn't disappoint. I'm so glad for the time change, since now I have more light to work with!