Short rides

Saturday started on a good note. Alyssa helped me build (built really) the saddle rack I've been thinking about. Its just a prototype right now but I'm pretty pleased with it. In the future we'll add to it, sand it, and bolt it onto something sturdy. Still, its nice when a plan like that comes to fruition so smoothly.

Alyssa and Robert took Luca out on a drive. Meanwhile I saddled Colonel up for some arena work. The plan was to work on teaching how to "double" a little more calmly. I have a tendency to swing him around and I'm thinking thats overly emotional training. Colonel was quite sluggish in the arena, unless something got him excited. Going towards the door is one such example.

We did some doubling work, and he did show slight signs of getting the idea that the outside rein should control his speed. Very slight signs. We did transitions and be leaned on my hands through all of them. When he leaned on my hands we did little circles with a high inside rein. Didn't help the transitions but I think it persuaded him to leave off pulling on me when we weren't doing transitions.

Luca was coming back so I decided to quit for the day. I took him into the center of the arena and asked for a halt. He leaned on my hands so hard that I became rather annoyed. So we tried doing halts where he didn't lean on my hands. No dice. So I started walking him into walls. He tried to dodge, and he leaned on my hands when I kept him straight. So I started trotting him into walls. Still lots of leaning. At one point he got pretty irritated and he was just starting to pick up the canter when I ran him into a wall. Nice stop on his rump, didn't lean on my hands. I got off and loosened his girth.

I'm swimming with various ideas on how to fix this transition issue. None of them seem very compelling. I might have to do a separate post where I agonize over the options I can think of.

Next Alyssa and I saddled up Star and Niki in the same crossties. That was interesting. Niki seemed pretty calm about the whole thing. Star was concerned but quiet.

I took Star around the field once without Alyssa to make sure everything would work out OK for our second ride out together. Everything checked out, and we decided to go past the scary tower of doom and ride all the way around the field.

Going past the scary tower of doom went quite well. Alyssa seemed pretty relaxed, and I was pleased with the situation. We saw a dog up ahead, I speculated that it was a Belgian sheepdog, Alyssa said it was some mix or other, and we chatted a little while about it. We were coming up on the bright orange been-there-forever-yet-still-scary fence. I thought that would be the next major hurdle.

Then I saw the dog charging at us. Then Star and Niki saw the dog charging at us. Then the shit hit the fan. Niki turned and bolted, which was all I saw as I tried to spin Star. I usually spin her to the right, but for some reason I chose the left. Maybe because that would start her off away from the barn, maybe it was random. The result was that Star was more resistant, and since my left arm is weaker, I didn't manage to pull her into a circle. So we ran sideways. I have never seen her run that fast while still sideways. She was starting to straighten out so I grabbed both reins in my right hand, slid my hand up the rein most of the way up to her bit, and then leaned back to pull her around. Yay leverage and a strong lower back. So I turned her into a circle and was able to look up to watch Alyssa and Niki running off.

By the time I looked up at them again they had stopped. Alyssa was grinning and occasionally leaning on her knee as she collapsed her upper body laughing. She was probably a little giddy from the adrenaline. Niki was calmly eating grass.

I got closer and discovered that Alyssa was actually grimacing in pain; grabbing her thigh to try to steady herself lest she move her hip and cause more pain. Apparently Niki's sudden leap to the side wrenched Alyssa's hip severely. I was relieved when Alyssa decided to get off her horse, and I got off Star. I planned on bringing the horses back and fetching Vic and a truck and driving back out to collect Alyssa, who would be finding a comfortable position to hold while she waited.

I was quite dismayed to find that I couldn't talk her into this plan. Alyssa wanted to get back up and ride home. We argued about this briefly, she had plenty of justifications for her decision, most of them silly. The one that got me was her claim that lying down was not an option and that standing was painful. Apparently mounting a horse from the ground struck her as less painful that lying down or sitting, so I held her stirrup and she rode back to the barn. (I tried to lead Niki home but it went poorly so off she went.) I got back on Star and followed her.

I wound up having to pry the reins out of her hands, since she was insisting on standing there and holding Niki while I put Star back. Shana was there so she held Niki for me while I hastily pulled Star's tack off and put her in her stall. Niki got the same treatment.

Ibuprofin, food, water, and lemonade for Alyssa. After about 45 minutes she got restless and wanted to walk around. This was quite alarming to me. Alyssa has a history of pushing herself a little more than seems wise. I had to admit though, she seemed to be walking reasonably well, so I calmed down, and transitioned out of emergency mother hen mode. (Next notch down: heightened mother hen mode.)

After all was said and done, Alyssa seems remarkably positive about the experience. She cantered her horse, rode it home from the field, and survived probably the worst spook she'll have to deal with. Last I heard (Sunday) she's "almost functioning normally" so maybe we'll ride out on Tuesday. If we see the dog, she has my blessing to dismount and walk until we pass it.