Ride 21
Last Tues. MIL came over to ride since her drill practice was cancelled. I was going to clean stalls while she rode with the kids but she nagged me until I finally decided to get on. I couldn’t find my bridle so I put the bosal on Cat and jumped on bareback. I didn’t do any groundwork with her but she started out ok. She was a little nervous when one of the kids would come by (they scare me too) but what really got her was the neighbor, her gator and her dogs. They’ve been in Texas for 6 months and now they are back.
After a few attempts to spook, I finally decided I’d better get on the ground before she put me there. If she would have been saddled I would have ridden it out however my balance isn’t that good bareback so I opted not to try. I hopped off and did some groundwork with her until I got her focus on me. Even though I didn’t get to ride for an extended amount of time, I still had a good ride.
Ride 22
Thursday I decided to join MIL at drill practice. When we arrived I did a little bit of groundwork in the arena and then decided to hop on. I grabbed the mounting block and ended up finding a spooky horse. For some reason she was determined the mounting block was going to eat her so we worked on a bit of desensitizing. Looking back I’m not so sure she was afraid of the mounting block as much as I think she thought I was trying to yield her hindquarters. Heck maybe it was a bit of both.
I mounted up and we headed into the arena. Even though we haven’t been there a lot she has already learned how to open the gate for me with her nose. Tuff used to do that so it made me smile to see Cat following in her mom’s hoof steps. To my surprise there were a lot of horses there. Cat was pretty worried about where Sis was so I tried to keep her away from Sis. As soon as practice started Cat and I moved to the outside of the arena. I took this as an opportunity to get her focused back on me. Anytime she would nicker I would do LFR Stage 2. It didn’t take her long to figure it out and rest quietly by me.
We were able to get in the arena and w/t/c during their breaks. The arena has what is called the “crows nest”. It is a small two story building used by the announcer during the shows. It has stairs going to the second level and a window on the first level. She is a bit nervous around the crows nest (as most horses are) but when a young boy ran up to it and then up the stairs it gave her quite a fright. I think she’s telling me I need to work more on my desensitizing.
All-in-all she was very well behaved. I was happy to be able to move her in and out of the other horses with ease and to be able to have them come at her from different directions without making her nervous.
Here is my tired little girl at the end of the night.
Ride 23
Saturday the weatherman forecasted rain so DH and I decided to try to clean out the barn. MIL took the boys with her for the afternoon so I got started on stalls. Cat was a mess! She had rolled what looked like 20 times in the mud and was covered from head to tail in mud. The weather was wonderful though so I decided to forget cleaning and go for a ride. After spending 20 minutes trying to clean Cat off I decided to just EzAll her and then go for lunch while she dried.
After lunch DH and I saddled up to hit the road. I used one of the shavings bags to desensitize her with but it didn’t faze her. Beyond that, I didn’t do any groundwork with her knowing we were in for a long ride. She was goofy before we even left the driveway. Again, something at the neighbors had her attention and “Brave Bell” was not going to be the leader of the pack. I finally got Cat out of the drive and down the road. As we approached the neighbor’s house I noticed a woodchuck in the field. Shortly after I noticed it Cat noticed it too. She was sure it was going to kill her and of course a car was approaching. I pulled her to the side and waited for the car to pass and then moved on with “Brave Bell” following behind.
When we got to rollercoaster road I decided to lope the hill to get some excess energy out of Cat. I heard Bell nicker and looked back but didn’t see her. Did she pick up a stone? Did something happen? Why wasn’t DH loping behind us? He was! She was just that slow. At the top of the hill we gave the horses (Bell) a bit of a break. I didn’t let the break last too long because I didn’t need Cat catching a second wind.
From the hill on out Cat and I worked on ORS at the trot. She is starting to think about stopping on my sit but she just isn’t there yet. She is going to be a stopper! I had no problems navigating her though the puddles on the side of the road and for the most part after the hills she was a good, quite little pony until……………………the dreaded dog! Luckily the dreaded dog was tethered but it sure did have Cat on high alert. We did some more ORS at the trot and then had a nice section of open road to canter on.
About a mile from home Bell decided to finally pick up the lead. Along the way there were a few spooky things (cattle, deer, horses, etc) but Cat was too tired to care and with Bell in the lead her confidence went up a bit.
My tired little girl when we got back. You can see the dirt I didn’t wash off on her face.
I had hoped to get her out into some trees before this weekend but I don’t think that is going to happen.
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