Last week was a blur between work and my other activities. I've always kept a little calendar in the car to keep track of the horses' turnout, riding, and lunging, but with both kids home the car swapping is getting a little crazy and I haven't been too good about keeping up with the calendar. Consequently I'm sitting here trying to remember when I rode Bestie last week, other than my Wednesday lesson. Hmmn.
She was pretty good on lesson day. Basically she tries to go outside after a couple of loops around the indoor, but she didn't fight me when I kept her inside. I rode her around at the walk for several loops while Emma and I talked about her behavior over the past couple of weeks. We discussed what I could do to calm myself down when she misbehaves (deep slow breathing, putting balanced weight in my core, thinking positively and not fearfully) and then moved on to what I could try with her when she gets all worked up. Emma thought it would be useful to train her to respond to a command to drop her head, to train her so thoroughly that it would be second nature to her when I gave the command. The thought was that it would be hard for her to act up with her head dropped, and apparently it's calming both to have it in that position and to respond to a familiar request.
So I got off and Emma got on to teach it to her. The first couple times circling around, Bestie kept fixing her eyes on me, a bit wild-eyed, like she wasn't sure about this situation. I'm the only one that has been on her in a long time. Emma must have stayed on her for almost half an hour, gently pulling on the left rein, and immediately releasing when Bestie dropped her head even a tiny bit. By the end of the session, she was dropping her nose to about 6-7 inches off the ground. It was interesting to watch her process the training. She definitely thinks about everything, and initially would often do the drop but then jerk her nose out a bit, like, "Ok, I did what you wanted. But I'm only doing it because I want to, NOT because YOU want me to." She just had to add that little extra nose punch of attitude. She's definitely smart, which is, as Emma says, "a blessing and a curse."
So now I need to get on her and keep doing it, and work on the right side, being careful to release as soon as she dips her head. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to ride. I didn't get to spend much time at the barn today, just enough time to groom them both and clean up their stalls. Dude had four bald strips on his rear end right by his tail where the hair had been scraped clean off by one of his pasture mates. He's been looking pretty good for a week or so, and I thought they had all settled down. Time to get the A&D ointment out again.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Return of Psycho Mare
"Last published on May 19." Yeesh, I always feel like a loser when I see a spread like that between posts :). What's transpired since May 19? Both daughters arrived home from college, and that means that Dude is very pleased to have his girl back. The day before she arrived home, I told him, "Dude, you are gonna be one happy guy tomorrow." And he was. It's been nice having her company at the barn, although we've only managed to do one ride together. Which brings me to this post's title...
I'm trying to spend more time on Bestie now that Katie's home to ride Dude. So one beautiful Friday night I got on her to ride out to the outdoor ring. I rode her around in the indoor for 10 minutes or so, and she was positively sluggish. She'd been outside all day in the sun. We walked around and warmed up, did a couple lovely little jogs around the indoor and then headed out. About half way to the outdoor ring, we met up with barn manager Emma, who was walking back to the barn, and I pulled Bestie up to chat with Emma about something. Bestie was fine for a minute, then got really irritated and starting bouncing about, clearly ready to get going. We continued on down the path. Once we got to the outdoor, we rode around at a trot and the walk, circling around the jumps and just working on keeping her slow and bending. She just kept getting more and more irritated, progressively faster and clearly not listening to me.
This situation just wasn't going anywhere positive, so I jumped off her so that I could pick her poop out of the ring. She calmed down as we walked back and forth, back and forth, with a couple forkfuls of manure to the wheelbarrow. Then I brought her back to the step stool to get back on her to ride her back to the barn. She would not hold still for me to get on, just kept circling around. We were the only ones out there, so we weren't in anyone's way. I just kept walking her back to the step stool and positioning her, then she'd move off before I even got to the top of the stool.
Finally I was able to get on her, and then she headed like a bullet to the open gate. There's a dressage ring set up within the ring, and I was afraid she was either going to run right through the poles, or jump them. I got her pulled up and she stepped over the poles, then she shot through the gate and started bouncing around on the path, sidestepping one way, then the other and tossing her head around. She was pretty worked up. I was afraid she was going to rear. I was trying to stay really calm and not pull on her mouth too much, because she hates that, but I wanted to keep enough pressure on to keep her from running off. Finally there was a pause in the action and I jumped off. Fun.
I walked her back to the barn. By the time we got about half way back she had settled down. I don't know what set off the temper tantrum, it really came out of the blue. We've ridden out there before all by ourselves and she's been fine. And I've been either riding or lunging her regularly.
I got back on her the next day but only rode in the indoor, and she was good. The following day I rode out to the outdoor, and she tried to spin around and go back to the barn a couple times, but I was able to get her back on the path without much of a fight. I'm having a lesson on her Wednesday, which will be good. You can't fight with her and win, so I'm hoping Emma will come up with some good tools to focus and calm Bestie when she has a "moment." I'm also hoping this is a temperamental phase that will pass as suddenly as it arrived.
I'm trying to spend more time on Bestie now that Katie's home to ride Dude. So one beautiful Friday night I got on her to ride out to the outdoor ring. I rode her around in the indoor for 10 minutes or so, and she was positively sluggish. She'd been outside all day in the sun. We walked around and warmed up, did a couple lovely little jogs around the indoor and then headed out. About half way to the outdoor ring, we met up with barn manager Emma, who was walking back to the barn, and I pulled Bestie up to chat with Emma about something. Bestie was fine for a minute, then got really irritated and starting bouncing about, clearly ready to get going. We continued on down the path. Once we got to the outdoor, we rode around at a trot and the walk, circling around the jumps and just working on keeping her slow and bending. She just kept getting more and more irritated, progressively faster and clearly not listening to me.
This situation just wasn't going anywhere positive, so I jumped off her so that I could pick her poop out of the ring. She calmed down as we walked back and forth, back and forth, with a couple forkfuls of manure to the wheelbarrow. Then I brought her back to the step stool to get back on her to ride her back to the barn. She would not hold still for me to get on, just kept circling around. We were the only ones out there, so we weren't in anyone's way. I just kept walking her back to the step stool and positioning her, then she'd move off before I even got to the top of the stool.
Finally I was able to get on her, and then she headed like a bullet to the open gate. There's a dressage ring set up within the ring, and I was afraid she was either going to run right through the poles, or jump them. I got her pulled up and she stepped over the poles, then she shot through the gate and started bouncing around on the path, sidestepping one way, then the other and tossing her head around. She was pretty worked up. I was afraid she was going to rear. I was trying to stay really calm and not pull on her mouth too much, because she hates that, but I wanted to keep enough pressure on to keep her from running off. Finally there was a pause in the action and I jumped off. Fun.
I walked her back to the barn. By the time we got about half way back she had settled down. I don't know what set off the temper tantrum, it really came out of the blue. We've ridden out there before all by ourselves and she's been fine. And I've been either riding or lunging her regularly.
I got back on her the next day but only rode in the indoor, and she was good. The following day I rode out to the outdoor, and she tried to spin around and go back to the barn a couple times, but I was able to get her back on the path without much of a fight. I'm having a lesson on her Wednesday, which will be good. You can't fight with her and win, so I'm hoping Emma will come up with some good tools to focus and calm Bestie when she has a "moment." I'm also hoping this is a temperamental phase that will pass as suddenly as it arrived.
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