There's little in life that is truly breathtaking... but this afternoon counts as one such example. Many of you will know that 
This afternoon we did another session with Nayyerah. She was indescribably cooperative. She allowed me to mount her 4 times. 2 on each side. We train for symmetry so that you can do everything on the offside that you can do on the on side. This is only her second time being mounted. The very first mount was only a week ago or so and we videoed it for posterity.
The impressive take away today was we did some walking with her! I made a clicking sound from her back as we do when leading her and she started walking as she would being lead from the ground. No foot tapping required at all! She walked well under load and even stopped with a verbal command and a small pull on the halter (we only use halters, no bits, they are pain compliance tools - look at what's achievable without pain!)
So again she's blown us away. There's no way you'd pick her as having only walked under saddle for the first time. What's very rewarding is when we took all the tack off her she just started grazing. No running away, no bucking, she just hung around.
She's going to be amazing on the trails I think. That may be closer than we think. We've got the space here to get her some experience in a controlled environment but then we'll likely take her to a trail and put her behind our experienced horse, Scarab, as a speed regulator. Exciting!
For me this is one of those undertakings that I'll take pride in for the rest of my days. On my death bed I'll be able to say that I taught a horse to calmly take a rider and subsequently enjoy fun together on outings; something not many would be able to say. The effort and time required is immense but the rewards are money-can't-buy stuff.
Stay tuned for more updates!