Down She Goes!

Last night was MY night to ride so I told DH I was going to take LLL to the arena to ride. There wasn’t much of a point hauling a ½ empty trailer so I asked Chase if he wanted to go ride and spend some 1 on 1 time with mom. He accepted so we headed to the barn.

When we got to the arena we saddled up and headed in. I told Chase there were a few things we were going to work on together. I wanted him to do some ORS with Abby at the trot and canter so he could get her go & whoa buttons working better for him (since she knows the difference between the two of us).

I worked with LLL on the same thing for a bit and then we moved to the passenger lesson at the trot. Chase was still having some issues with Abby throwing her head at the lope so I told him to whack her and when he did up came her back legs. I told him to stop her and get off. I grabbed her and my crop and we had a little “discussion” about go and go NOW!

After that I had Chase get back on and ask her to lope in a circle (instead of wherever she wanted to go) so that her head was already tipped in, in case he needed to do a ORS. She did much better and actually loped without throwing a fit. Once she did that I let him stop her and walk her to cool her out and “reward” her for loping well.

I did some trotting passenger lesson with LLL who thinks it’s lots of fun to go over to other horses when we do this. It was ok in the beginning but I was done with it last night so I said “fine, you want to be by Abby? Let’s lope circles around her!”

So I asked her to lope a circle where I got a big ‘ol up yours! This is getting old too (I’ve been ignoring it) so I pulled her into a tight circle and reprimanded her for kicking up her heels. I think I caught her off guard just a bit. LOL

I made Chase lope Abby one more time and she did well again. I told him I was going to trot LLL around the arena (follow the fence) two times each direction and then lope one time in each direction and then we’d leave. I had my trotting done and was just starting on my loping when I heard a noise. As I turned I noticed Abby on the ground getting ready to roll and Chase next to her.

Seeing him on the ground the other weekend when he came off didn’t phase me but all I could think of was her getting up and dragging him (not that I see Abby doing that but you never know). I flew off of LLL and yelled at him to get his foot out of the stirrup. He said it was out so I told him to get up and kick the shit out of Abby. He couldn’t figure out what I was telling him so I got her up and then proceeded to put her butt to work as soon as she was on all 4’s!

Once she though she was going to die I made Chase get back on. I asked him if she had her head down before she laid down and he said yes so I told him to keep it up! I loped Lu around to finish her off and then we headed to unsaddle and go home.

I had seen some breakaway stirrups on RFD-TV the other day so I went on-line today to find out about them. Youth ones START at $400.00! Yikes!

I think Abby just needs a few more miles put on her. I’ve had plenty try to lay down on me (LLL actually tried last night but not while I was on her) so I don’t think she was being a shit as much as she was being a hot horse.

We are going horse camping this weekend so we’ll see how she does. I’m sacrificing and leaving Lu at home so we only have to take one trailer so Abby might get a bit more ride time this weekend.