Saturday morning while cooking breakfast we were greeted with rain and forced to move things inside of the trailer. I was glad we ended up bringing along the portable DVD player and MIL's laptop! The weather just couldn't make up it's mind. The sun would come out and then it would sprinkler. We finally decided to buck it up and go for a ride. I decided before hitting the trail I'd better hit the arena with Cat just to make sure she was going to listen. As we approached the arena I noticed a small "bridge" and decided to ask her to go across it. She was hesitant and then decided it would be easier to jump it. I worked on sending her over it several times. When she finally walked across it semi relaxed I stopped and headed into the arena.
She is really starting to anticipate my turns during LFR stage II so I've been trying to work on that. She was being good and listening to me so I decided to end our gw session (the huffing and puffing from her helped make the decision as well). As I left the arena a group of riders rode up and said "oh no, we missed it!" I replied "huh? missed what?". They knew I had been to a CA clinic so they wanted to see my gw. I chuckled and said maybe next time.
Mounted up we headed down the all purpose trail. It really was just a gravel road w/trees on both sides but it worked. Cat did really well! I was on a loose rein the majority of the ride. We rode down by the lake where we saw two bald eagles sitting on the bank. I'll bet they were less then a football field away. Chase thought that was pretty cool! I asked Cat to go into the lake and w/o hesitation she walked in.
Later that day a few of us decided to go for another ride. MIL stayed at camp with Cat as I was riding Sis w/a friends daughter on behind me. During the ride another friend's horse tried to kick Sis and afterwards Sis became very prancy and jiggy. Since I had a child on behind me I couldn't really do much for corrections. I had planned on taking her out when I got back to fix the problem until we returned..............that is when the plans changed.
When we got back to camp I found MIL holding Cat. Apparently she went into one of her major meltdowns when we left and started rearing on the hitching rail. She somehow managed to get her leg over the lead rope and got hung up. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how she did this. We always hook the tie rings to the wire above the hitching rail so they horses are tied up and have no extra rope to get caught on. I have to stand on a mounting block and reach to get the tie ring hooked!
MIL was too afraid to tie her back up and was worried her leg would swell so she held onto her the entire time we were out. When I returned to camp I gave MIL Sis and told her to take care of her while I took care of Cat! Black and Bell were tied up across camp at a friends hitching rail, Lucy was at the arena and Sis was gone. The only horse left at the hitching rail was a friend's horse Star.
I tied Cat to the trailer and she immediately started to rear so we backed over to Star and did some LFR then backed back over to the trailer for the opportunity to tie quietly. Th is took a few good repetitions for it to sink in and by this time I could see eyes watching me from behind trailers probably wondering what in the world I was doing. Finally she took a deep breath, exhaled and dropped her head. I don't have opportunities to mimic this at home so although I would love for her to be prefect, I'm glad I was able to work on the issue.
Sunday a huge storm came through so we decided to pack up and head for MIL's. When we unloaded the horses Abby was so excited to see them she RAN figure 8's around them trying to get them to run and play with her. She was hauling some serious arse! She would buck and then jump straight up in the air. It was nice to see her feeling so well. Monday it was wash ponies day! Lucy's mane was full of ticks so I gave her a flea/tick shampoo and then pulled them out. Yuck! Cat got clipped completely! I need to work on that more but neither one of us were seriously injured during the process so all was good.
The weather here is supposed to be hot all week so we left all of the horses except Sis at MIL's for the week to eat down her pasture and give ours a break.
1 comment:
Ugh! Ticks. I hate those things.
You didn't want to put on a gw show for spectators? You may have gotten a few converts.
Good to hear Cat did not end up injured.
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