Robert told us to have fun and ride some horses today, so we did that. At the end of the day the body count was 5, plus we free lunged luca so 6 if you count that.
After putting my saddle on Colonel along with the hot pink pad Alyssa left on it I walked out to the arena. Alyssa was there with Reno and the saddle I usually use, Robert's dressage saddle. Since my saddle clearly wasn't going to work, and Alyssa was done with Reno, we did a little saddle swap and Alyssa brought my saddle back to the barn. Colonel stood quite nicely for the whole thing, even though comet was zooming around in the arena and the gate was open.
Under saddle I started doing what Robert suggested and every time he pulled on me I pushed him forward. This had the irritating side effect of causing him to go forward every time he pulled on me, whether I pushed him or not. I'm worried I'll wind up with one back-asswards gelding who speeds up when you use your rein aids. Anyway, it does get him to pick his head up so one problem at a time I guess.
Speaking of annoying side effect problems, Colonel circles very poorly now. Every time I ask for a circle he pitches a hissy fit, bucking and cantering the whole way around. He discovered that I have no problem making him canter an eight meter circle if he picks up the canter the moment we turn. I discovered that he has no problem throwing his head down and bucking while cantering an eight meter circle. I shouldn't say no problem, he's perfectly willing but his ability to buck is severely hindered by the circle. So that will need fixing. I feel like I'm just always trading bigger problems for lesser problems, and then fixing those lesser problems later on. Bucking on his circles isn't exactly a small problem, but I think its pretty easily fixed.
We went outside today because it was sunny and gorgeous. Going away from the barn he was very nice. I decided pretty quickly I'd like to turn around and just make this a nice, short, low stress expedition. Going towards the barn he was pissy and prancy. No worse than Papillon but took constant managing to keep him calm and slow. After we crossed the culvert headed back to the barn I walked him back to the arena and dismounted there. I've decided that I'm always always going to dismount in the arena, hopefully it will get through his thick skull that its not over until I say its over. No amount of sneaking out the arena door is going to get him back any faster.
(Honestly, why do they think that will work? Am I just going to decide that as long as I'm back at the barn I may as well put him away?)
I took Star out and we did lots of transitions and leg yields and shoulder in and hindquarters in. Star alternated between being a delightful and kinda pissy. Still, I was pleased that she wasn't a nervous wreck after our little incident while taking up. I cliped her to the wall in the wash rack and stepped a few feet away to get a brush... BOOM! or should I say SNAP. Star flipped out, pulled on the tie, slipped on the concrete, pulled some more, snapped the metal clip (the bailing twine held, of course) and ran back into her stall and out to her run, dragging both her lead line and the cross tie. Classy.
I took her outside too, and we walked through the water, and the scary bare patches on the ground. We chased geese, which Star seemed to really enjoy. I could feel her pick herself up and walk much more forward after she realized that some other animal was more afraid of her than she was of it. We jumped the bank once from a walk. She does what I always predicted Nisa would do, namely, after the jump she thrusts her head down into the grass to eat. When I work with her in hand thats her reward for jumping things. Under saddle its not so bad when she is more forward over the bank but its still kinda slippery out there and I was pushing my luck as it was.
Chased Luca around, fed, and conditioned Colonels new reins (glorious god-fearing laced reins, not that skinny strip of leather I was using before.) I call it a good day.
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2 comments:
you forgot Tillie!
You're right. I'll just amend the post with a comment.
Robert was surprisingly casual when I asked if I could take Tillie out to lunge her. He said yes and started to explain how to start a horse out lunging. He interrupted himself to ask if I knew how to start them. I said that I knew. I started Anabelle and Dylan, although I dont really remember Robert telling me how, I just guessed and it seemed to work out.
Basically when I start them I pretend that they already sortof know how to lunge. I stop them, I back away slowly while letting out more line. If they try to follow me I say woah, and if neccesary, I wiggle the lead rope and ask them to back away from me. Then I make my "wall" with the lunge whip and slowly slowly slowly increase the pressure. Anabelle bolted almost immediately when I did this.
Tillie just stood quietly looking at me. I raised the whip higher, I clucked at her a little, I started gently swinging the whip, then I let the end of the drop touch her flank at the highest part of the swing. She kicked at the whip a little. I didn't want to escalate any further than that so I just kept tap tap tapping on her. She made some impressive precision kicks right at the drop on the whip. Eventually, maybe recovering from a kick, she took a step forward. Lower whip, relax, breath.
Raised it again, tap tap tap and then she bolted (but in a circle!) I was happy it was a circle so I dropped all the pressure and just watched quietly. I was surprised to see her come down to a walk, and a little disappointed when she turned and pulled on me to go towards the gate. We got two nice circles, at a walk, each way. (Reversing direction completely mystified her, but that's fine for now.) I call that excellent. She's a smart girl, a little opinionated, but I think she'll be lunging like a champ in no time.
She may even be literally lunging like a champ. Robert says when she turns two we can enter her in some lunge line classes.
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