Saturday the drill team had practice and they were a rider short so I was asked to fill in. Since this was their first practice and they were just going to walk the pattern I decided to take Cat. Surely she’d be ready – right?
We got there early to check on Abby so we were one of the first ones in the arena. She had sticky feet compared to normal and I didn’t have my stick so I ignored it. As the horses started to funnel into the arena I could feel her tensing up a bit. I decided to go ahead and mount up. I rode w/just my halter/lead as I didn’t want to overwhelm her.
She wasn’t sure what to think and was getting pretty nervous (for Cat) so we did lots of circles. There was one horse that she did not care for at all and would pin her ears at. I didn’t correct it since it was her first time around other horses and she was already nervous.
Once the pattern was started she did better then I anticipated. I felt bad because I had to control her speed and we haven’t worked on that yet. She wanted to walk a lot faster then the other horses. I was happy with how she did in the group but not happy with how she did overall so once the team was done I got her back out. This time I went ahead and put her bridle on her.
As the horses left the arena she got nervous and started to fight me. She decided to rear (her way of protesting) so I quickly introduced Mr. Crop to her butt and did some yielding of the HQ. It didn’t take long for her to get the picture. I didn’t do any ORS since she anticipates them; instead, we went straight to the passenger lesson at the trot. She felt really good moving out.
Next it was the passenger lesson at the canter. She was moving out! She never moves out. It felt good and I felt comfortable on her. As she started to get tired she started ducking in but I maintained my seat and pushed her on. She was dog tired when we got done but I felt good about where we finished.
(ride 14)
No comments:
Post a Comment