Riding Thoroughbreds

I took my 4 year old "retired" Thoroughbred filly for her first trail ride through the woods that would entail crossing the stream. She has gone around the corn and by the pastures where the broodmares are , but this was her inaugural trip through the infamous "big " stream. Now, we have 5 streams on the farm of varying depth. One is pretty big, two run through the pastures so the horses learn not only to drink from a stream ( useful skill-more about that later), but also to walk sanely through a stream, and the last two are smaller tho' they are bigger ditches -so to speak. This filly is brave but a typical Thoroughbred which means she KNEW the troll lived in the big stream! After planting her toes for the umpteenth time I dismounted , undid one side of my rein and proceeded to show her that the water was only inches deep and the troll was not here today. She snorted and rolled her eyes and very reluctantly slid down the bank and sniffed the water. Now, this filly grew up in one of the pastures that has a stream for drinking- she knows water. What a nut! After a little bit she calmly drank, gave me a long look and walked through the stream like she had done it forever. This is why I love Thoroughbreds- they make you work for every little victory, but then it feels like you really accomplished something. I actually was very proud of her, gave her a pat and rode home. Small steps but they add up to a nice horse eventually. About the stream and drinking, can't tell you how many times I have had to drop a bucket in a stream so that the "new" horse can figure out how to drink from the stream. They drink from the bucket in the stream first!!