Ground Work!

Last night I worked with my sister and Chase on ground work. Heather (my sister) is very nervous around the horses, extremely Max. Nikki (the pony) could commit murder and she wouldn’t think twice (well she would but…), but Max just looks at her and she’s squealing. So, what did I do? I made her work with Max. I figured if she learns she can move him she’ll be more confident around all of them.

We started off desensitizing to the string. Max fell asleep for Heather. Chase was getting frustrated because he kept whacking Abby with the popper but she stood like a champ for him. Then it was the stick and string. Max was still asleep. Chase did much better with the stick and string.

Then we moved on to yielding the HQ stage 1. To my surprise Chase and Abby did very well. So did Heather and Max but she was a bit hesitant to tap him when needed. I showed her how to do yielding the HQ stage 2 but didn’t have her do it. We moved on to yielding the FQ. We need to work on that with Abby. She just flexes her head and Chase couldn’t tap her hard enough. Max of course was a champ.

We ended with Heather backing Max up and then I made her just rub him. I think she felt a bit more confident at the end.

Bareback at it’s best

Last night I went out to the barn with no intentions of riding. DH and the boys went with me and we had planned to just feed and groom and then head home to do a little bit of housework.

I started off by brushing LLL and DH was brushing Max. Ty was running up and down the alleyway with a pool noodle trying to scare the horses for me. DH took off and I heard my mom yell for Ty so I took him up to her. She had the 4-wheeler out and took the boys for a ride.

I returned to the barn to find my sister petting Abby. I asked her if she wanted to go for a ride and she replied saying we didn’t have enough time to saddle them up. “What do you mean saddle them up? We’ll ride bareback.” I told her. She got this “look” on her face (she still isn’t very confident around the horses) but agreed. She asked where Abby’s bridle was and I replied telling her it was in the trailer but she wouldn’t need it that we’d just ride in halters. I got that “look” again.

We headed out to the RP and I got her up on Abby. I pulled LLL over to the fence and jumped on her. We just rode around at a walk so she could find her balance. Abby had her ears back listening to Heather and Heather thought she was pinning her ears. I asked LLL to trot and said “that’s what pinned ears look like”. I think LLL is in need of another adjustment.

We rode around for about 30 minutes just laughing at each other and having a good old time. It’s been kind of nice having a riding partner out at the barn.

Nothing Too Spectacular

Well nothing too spectacular happened this weekend. Saturday we had drill practice again and I got to use my new trailer for the first time. All I have to say is – that is a long trailer! I’ll admit I was a bit nervous about driving with it but I got to my location and home all in one piece.

The horses seemed to travel better but they were in a bit of a hurry to back out when we got to the arena so it looks like a little “trailer loading 101” refresher might be in their future.

Practice went well. Our new member is picking up quickly. The horses were a bit tired after not being worked that hard for a few weeks. Plus it was almost 90 degrees out so it was pretty warm for us.

My sister would like to learn more about the horses and she’s been playing with Nikki so I showed her how to do LFR with Nikki. Of course she’s lazy so it wasn’t done at lightening speed but my sister got the gist of the exercise.

Yesterday her kids came back home and she saddled up Nikki for Shari and let her ride in the RP. While Shari was riding, Heather started to rub on Abby who had been standing on the outside of the round pen. I went out and caught her, brought her into the barn and saddled her up for Heather. For some reason Abby freaked when I went to through the saddle up on her so there is something else we need to work on.

I did some LFR with Abby (who is finally starting to get it) and then took her to the RP. I jumped on briefly just to make sure she was going to be ok and then let Heather ride her. I about fell to the ground in laughter when Shari said “MOM! Put your heels down!” There’s nothing like taking riding advice from your 6 yr. old daughter.

They seemed to get alone fine and I left Heather some CA videos so she can start to understand why we do some of the things we do.