It's about time!

Sunday I was finally able to play with the ponies! I loaded up Lu and Abby and we headed over to the indoor to play.

I had no intentions of riding since it had been so long since I’d done anything with them. It was a good thing too! First rule of winter in Iowa – make sure you have a padlock that won’t freeze on your tack compartment of your trailer! Luckily my stick & string and a hoof pick was in the truck so I was at least able to pick out their feet.

Abby unloaded a lot faster then I would have liked but unfortunately the drive was icey and LFR just didn’t seem like a good idea so I reloaded her and unloaded her one more time but didn’t push it. She was nervous but not in the cracked out type of way. When I opened the garage door (to get into the barn) she drew herself back and her eyes got big but she kept her feet still. I walked her into the barn and tied her up and headed out to get Lucy.

Lucy was a bit impatient as she wanted to get to Abby. She had no fear of the barn but she’s been there before too. After I picked their feet we headed into the arena. I tied up Lu and started with Abby. I walked her around first so she could check things out and then headed to the middle of the arena to do some desensitizing. The cats kept trying to get the end of my rope and she wasn’t sure what to think of that but she did keep her feet still.

We did the following exercises –
Desensitizing to string
She did just fine
Desensitizing to stick & string
No problems
Flexing
She is very soft. I had to bump a few times to get her to give but once she decides to give she gives all of the way.
Yielding HQ
She tried. I’m having issues here and need to find out what I’m doing. I always do better w/o the halter/lead.
Yielding FQ
She bends her head around to her belly (like flexing) to avoid the stick but eventually does yield her FQ
LFR Stage 1
Much better then before. I did get some attitude when I asked for a lope but not nearly as much as normal. She kept an nice arch on the line and moved when asked.
Backing Stage 1
Good. She picked up on the concept fairly quickly and really hustled when asked
Desensitizing w/the stick & string (slapping the ground)
Good. I had low to medium energy but this normally sends her over the edge so we found a starting point.

After that she was pretty warm so I tied her up and moved on to Lu. She fell asleep during the desensitizing exercises. She anticipated the yielding the HQ exercise and she moves faster then I can on the yielding the FQ exercise. Flexing we need to work on. She comes around and she’s soft but she’s in no hurry at all.

LFR stage 1 went well. She trotted out nicely and when asked to lope she only kicked up her heels once. She’s still having problems staying on the same lead (she cross fires) but her balance is getting better.

When I’d yield her HQ to stop she wanted to anticipate going the other direction so I would take a long pause before going the other direction. So then when I’d stop her she’d back up (I don’t like that either) so I started sending her, yielding her HQ and then drawing her to me. Backing her back out to the circle and then going the other direction. She was starting looking forward to coming to me which I like because she’s a very antisocial horse.

Then we did LFR Stage 2. When we started Lu turned so fast that she darn near tripper herself up with her front feet. I remembered what CA told one of the gals in the NE clinic & I slowed myself down and thought more about the steps instead of what Lu was doing and her turns were much better. She was smoother and not in as much of a hurry nor was she as pissy. LFR stage 2 seems to ramp her up and LFR stage 1 seems to make her dull. She needs a happy medium so I played between LFR stage 1/drawing her to me and LFR stage 2.

After that I did some backing and focused on getting her to back straight since she’ll back fast. She wasn’t a happy camper about that but did it. It probably was not to CA’s satisfaction but it was a good start for us.

I then tied her up and hopped on Abby bareback while LLL cooled down. Abby was very soft in the halter but a bit nervous so we did some ORS until she relaxed and then we loaded up and headed home.

The weather is going to turn bad this week but hopefully the roads will be cleared off by Sat. or Sun. so I can go again.