I Found Lucy’s Buttons!

Last night Chase and I went out to work with the horses. He’s had a few minor problems with Abby the last couple of rides that I thought I’d work through. I saddled up Sis, Abby and Lucy. I tied LLL to the patience pole and put Chase on Sis & I work on some LFR with Abby. We worked in the RP and I had Chase work on ORS only. Wow was Sis stiff! Abby and I need to work a bit more on the ground work but to her defense I haven’t done anything with her since we got her. After some light ground work I got on.

Abby is awesome! I told Chase I might steal her from him (he of course wasn’t very happy with that). She’s such a smart pony and she’s no smaller (she actually feels bigger) than LLL. She immediately picked up on the flexing. I picked up the rein and her head was at my foot. We had a few “drags” going to the right but she picked up. Then we started on the ORS. She had a harder time with that because she wanted to continue to go in a circle but she picked it up fast enough.

I had to hop off and mark Chase’s reins and when I did we put Ty in the saddle. Normally he’s not very thrilled to be anywhere near the horses but he loved it. He was all smiles. He even looked like a “real” cowboy when he kept spitting off to the side. When we’d stop Abby Ty would start to rock back and forth like “come on – move!”. He rode for probably 10 minutes before we finally talked him into getting off.

I jumped back on and continued with what I’d started working on before. Chase went home with DH and I had the pen all to myself. I kicked Abby up into a trot. She’s not very smooth.

Once she picked up on that we bumped up into a lope. Abby had only loped a few times since we’ve gotten her (heck she’s usually too lazy to trot) so she wasn’t thrilled that I was loping her in circles around the RP but she did as she was asked. She actually strides out very well at the lope and it’s a lot smoother than her trot. She was getting pretty tired so I pulled her into the center and flexed her some more and then hopped off.

I tied Abby to the PP, grabbed LLL and headed to the RP. By this time it was starting to get dark so I though I’d just RP Lu some and put her up. She was full of piss and vinegar! She took off around the RP bucking and farting. I actually got a chuckle out of it because she doesn’t typically play so it’s nice to see every once in a while.

I decided to get on. If nothing I’d just walk/trot/lope around a few times and get off. That was the game plan anyways. I’ve had the problem that when I put Lu on a loose rein and ask her to trot in the RP she does very small tight circles by one panel so I decided to push her through that. Once she finally stopped going over by the panel I would rest her on the opposite side of the RP. Then we kicked it up into a lope. She hesitated like normal so the crop hit her butt like normal and for the first time she popped her back end up to say “piss off lady” and I responded with “oh you liked that huh?”. Needless to say she didn’t think it was very funny. We loped around the RP for quite a while until she started to flow around better. She was booking it compared to how she normally goes.

She kept going back towards the one panel and trying to rub my leg on it (this isn’t new) but I’d had enough. When Abby did this earlier I’d immediately turn her into the fence and whack her outside shoulder so I did the same with Lucy. Holy shit! That girl can turn!

I’ve ridden a reining horse once but that was in college and while Max can turn he doesn’t even remotely compare to Lucy. Well that was fun so when she went back over we did it again (only this time I was ready).

If she could do that nice of a rollback what else could she do? She can spin! That’s what else she can do! I don’t remember how exactly I found that button but I did. I trotted her to the center of the RP, sat back on my pocket and put my leg on her and she started to go into it. I clucked and she sped up. Now don’t get me wrong this wasn’t dizzy, puking fast but it wasn’t turtle slow either.

Of course now that I figured it out I had to do it some more right? Of course I did. She’s not as quick going clockwise as she is counter clockwise but we’ll work on that later. During all of this Lucy acted like she actually had fun! OMG did she actually enjoy being worked? Could it be?

I decided I’d better quit while I was ahead (besides the fact that it was now pitch black out). Lucy is out of shape and gets hot fast and I still needed to cool her down, untack her and Abby and feed so we headed back to the barn. It is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow and I have a drill performance on Sat. so I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to hop on her again but hopefully soon!