Cat – Ride 17

Boring title I know but I want to keep track of where I’m at with her. Her last ride was the rode ride on 02/14.

It was over 60* yesterday so I headed straight to the barn from work. We do have an extra hour of daylight but it still isn’t nearly enough time when it comes to the horses. I saddled up Cat and headed out to the pasture to do a little groundwork. I started with a little desensitizing and then moved to LFR Stage 1. Whoa! When I pointed she was out of there like I’d zapped her with a hot shock! Besides slowing her down I need to work on getting her head tipped to the inside. After a few laps I yielded her hq and drew her in. She ran right up to me and then snorted in my chest. It wasn’t a “I’ve got stuff in my nose” snort, instead, it was one of those snorts they let out after they’ve been running and prancing around. I have NEVER had a horse do that to me before.

I sent her back out and she was off like a rocket again. A few laps later I drew her back in and she snorted again! Obviously someone was full of it so we moved to LFR stage 2. The next time I drew her in she was ready to stand in front of me because she was huffing and puffing. I let her stand for a bit and then went to desensitizing. I bought a new lunge whip at the last sale so I could crack it is so cheap it will barely crack. I did get it to crack a bit and on her left side she was ok. She flinched but she didn’t move. On her right side she flinched but she also grunted like she was holding her breath every time I would get the whip to crack.

It was finally time to saddle up! I actually had a plan in mind this time – ORS at the trot until she starts to listen to my seat. Well I semi followed the plan. When I first got on her she felt like she wanted to collapse (poor thing probably did since she isn’t used to working that hard) so I moved her off instead of flexing her. Once I got out away from the barn, fence, concrete, etc. then I stopped and flexed her. Then we tried to do some ORS at the trot. I think she’d been dippin in the green beer a day early because a straight line was not on her agenda.

I decided to go to the road hoping she would follow it but we had to get past the big, bad, horse eating mailbox first. That actually didn’t take too long. The road was going well. She wasn’t getting the stop off of the seat but she was going in a straight line. That was until………………she decided she didn’t have to stay on the road and she could go in the ditch. If you’ve ever been to the farm or seen pictures of the farm you will know the ditch by the road north of my parent’s (where I was riding) is pretty much a drop off. I decided this needed to be fixed before I continued so I jumped off and sent her down the ditch and back up it several times. Since it is a steep ditch it takes a lot of effort to get out of it (she pretty much jumped in with ease which really surprised me). After a few rounds in and out of the ditch I could finally tell it wasn’t looking as appealing as it once had.

I remounted and continued on my path to get a stop off of my seat. After a few more laps I finally got one going away from the barn (surprised?). I wasn’t sure if it was a fluke so I continued to try. Yep, it was a fluke. By this time it was getting late and she was getting tired so the next time she stopped even if it was a fluke I was quitting. Soon enough I got another stop away from the barn so I dismounted and stood on the road with her for a few minutes to let her “think” about what had just happened. Then we headed back to the barn for some time on the PP.