You've changed
For a while, I was one of those typical, horseless kids that got super attached to lesson horses to the point where I didn't like it when anyone else rode that horse. I loved the idea of having a horse to myself. Well, Miss S isn't using Baby in lessons anymore. That should be a yay, right? No, it's not a yay. It's not a yay at all. Baby isn't being used in lessons anymore because she has run off with too many children since November. Be careful what you wish for.
Long story short, Baby was in some kind of mood yesterday. She didn't want to walk or halt, she just wanted to go, go, go, which surprises me, even with her wanting to jig all the time. The ride started out with a very clear command to stop moving her feet, and we did a lot of trot/halt transitions. She was resisting my leg, which meant a resistance to the hand as well, which meant that bending didn't really happen at all. For a thirty minute ride, the large majority of it was spent trying to get some kind of bend.
When I actually asked her for the canter—she tried to canter multiple times when we were trotting—she preferred to barrel down the arena sides, both long and short, so there were more circles. When she was somewhat compliant, we did canter/halt transitions in a figure-8 with a change of lead. She wasn't too happy about halting straight off the left lead, so we did that a few more times after the figure-8, and they were very nice. She was a lot softer and more relaxed than when we had started. We accomplished something.
Afterwards, since she hadn't even broken a sweat, I had her stretch a bit for treats. Those five minutes of Tom Foolery showed me just how easily Baby gets distracted and how quickly treats grab her attention again. She was actually quite flexible (that or she was just desperate). She got just behind the wither on each side.
This post has produced the next blog hop as well.
What's the one thing your horse done that's really thrown you off? How out of character have they ever been?
Long story short, Baby was in some kind of mood yesterday. She didn't want to walk or halt, she just wanted to go, go, go, which surprises me, even with her wanting to jig all the time. The ride started out with a very clear command to stop moving her feet, and we did a lot of trot/halt transitions. She was resisting my leg, which meant a resistance to the hand as well, which meant that bending didn't really happen at all. For a thirty minute ride, the large majority of it was spent trying to get some kind of bend.
When I actually asked her for the canter—she tried to canter multiple times when we were trotting—she preferred to barrel down the arena sides, both long and short, so there were more circles. When she was somewhat compliant, we did canter/halt transitions in a figure-8 with a change of lead. She wasn't too happy about halting straight off the left lead, so we did that a few more times after the figure-8, and they were very nice. She was a lot softer and more relaxed than when we had started. We accomplished something.
Afterwards, since she hadn't even broken a sweat, I had her stretch a bit for treats. Those five minutes of Tom Foolery showed me just how easily Baby gets distracted and how quickly treats grab her attention again. She was actually quite flexible (that or she was just desperate). She got just behind the wither on each side.
This post has produced the next blog hop as well.
What's the one thing your horse done that's really thrown you off? How out of character have they ever been?
aww naughty Baby!! maybe more regular work will get her more responsive again? this winter is turning all the ponies into non-compliant little beasties :(
ReplyDelete