Today we got a pleasant surprise of contact from Sophie’s breeder.  As I mentioned before, I wasn’t knocked out with the name Sophie and had wanted to change it.  So far, nothing struck my fancy.  However, we have now learned her original name was Mystique.  Anna and I agree we like it, so Mystique will be her new name, with a likely barn name of Mysti.

Over the past 2.5 weeks, Mystique has been settling in on the farm.  She and King do not get along (which is par for King’s record with mares).  Huey isolates her from the others when she is in heat (again, as expected) and the other boys follow her around.  She is definitely a dominant mare which is good in our herd.

We did a couple of lunging sessions and it was clear she understood and had experience on the lunge line.

Yesterday evening I rode Mystique for the first time.  I was very pleasantly surprised at what she knew.  I set my expectations low since we got her without a test ride.  She was much more finished than I expected.  She was very light with my leg and a good balance of forward, without being too rushed.  Her canter transition in particular was better than I expected.  Anna is a much better rider than I am, and will work on her balance.  I will be focused on building her confidence on the trails.  Now that we have contact with her original breeder and know a little more about her previous training, it makes sense.  She definitely has some confidence issues that we will work on.

Overall, I am pleased with how she has settled in on the farm and look forward to our summer.