I had a full hour lesson on Sunday (more on that in a separate post) so Bestie and I took Monday off. I just swung by the barn for a fairly quick grooming session and an offering of carrots.
I really wanted to ride tonight, Tuesday, because I have book/wine group on Wednesday and yoga on Thursday, so I don't expect to go to the barn those nights. I hate to miss riding too many days in a row because I feel like we've made such great progress. It seems like we're in a good routine.
When I got to the barn tonight, a horse was already on the crossties in front of Bestie's stall, so I decided to tack her up in her stall while she continued to eat her hay. Normally that's fine. But tonight, she kept circling away from me. Finally, I left the stall to give her some space to see if she needed to poop. She likes her privacy. After a bit she did poop. Then she let me tack her up, but she kept pinning her ears in a sort of irritated way. But not a totally angry, I-don't-agree-with-this way.
We went on down to the lower, bigger indoor with Katie and Rocky. We rode around at the walk chatting for a bit, and then started doing our own thing. We remarked that both horses seemed a little sluggish. The weather has been so up and down, I can't blame them for feeling a bit blah.
Bestie and I jogged the long sides of the arena and walked the ends. I guess we did about 4 rounds, then I asked her to reverse. We made it about half way around after reversing direction, and she suddenly sped up for no apparent reason. I started to post, which usually slows her right down. But she kept speeding up with her head up high and pulling on the reins, and she broke into a canter just as I was trying to circle her, which threw me a bit off balance. I was trying to sit deep and relax my hands, but being off balance kept me from sitting deep and I know that lack of balance led me to have a tight grip on the reins - that reaction of hanging on for dear life. She gets really angry when you grip on the reins, so we were kind of stuck in this no-win escalating situation. I got her back to the trot, still speedy, and rode her right at the end wall, so she stopped and started sidestepping. But at least at this point we were back to a walk. She huffed and puffed around the ring for a lap, clearly still worked up.
I walked her around at least three more laps, and then asked her for a jog at the front end of the arena. She did a loop of about a third of the arena at a nice jog, and then I asked for a walk again. You gotta pick your battles, and I felt ending on that good note was best. Self preservation.
I haven't seen a tantrum on this level for several years. The last time was when we had been out in the field, and coming back to the barn, we had to pass the hay baler in action and she suddenly freaked out, jigging and bouncing around. I got off - it seemed the best thing to do in the wide open field. After that incident she refused to go down that way for the next couple of summers. It took forever to work through.
I don't know what this was all about tonight. Just a bad night? Maybe. We'll see how the next ride goes on Friday.
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