Changing names…

So Sparrow doesn’t seem to be sticking as a name for the pony.  I have had comments about how he looks like anything but a Sparrow, and to be perfectly honest, at this stage I’m not really surprised.

I did mention that the boy has been filling out right?  Well, everything has gotten bigger.  I had to do up his noseband a hole looser – his head has even grown!!

So I’m thinking of going back to plain old Joey.  Or do you think there is another name that suits him?  It has to sound similar to Joey or Sparrow – he already knows those names. 

…Or does that mean it has to be Joey again?  Do you think it’s fair to change a horse’s name once they know it?  I tend to think it’s a learned response, so the horse probably doesn’t care altogether that much.   In fact, Sp-er, Nameless One probably thinks that he’s really called “Steady Boy”!  

See ya,

bonita

Whoo hoo!

~  Not Sparrow and I yet, but someday…  ~

I am about as jazzed as I ever could be.  Today for the first time ever, with Sparrow,  I had my horse fully with me! 

It all started with the same routine – except that I had not ridden him in the last two weeks. 

Oh, this is going to be interesting. 

I went to get him and he was hanging out at the gate for me{isn’t he so cute?}, we groom and get ready to ride – uhoh, it that a saddle?  *Sparrow pulls face*

He looks grumpy as I tack him up, but I am prepared to lounge it out of him; no way am I just hopping on after the nice long holiday he’s had! 

He works really well on the left rein on the lounge line, but when we switch directions he doesn’t want to stay out on the track and keeps cutting in.  I use the whip at his shoulder to stop that, and he takes off at a canter.  He then proceeded to buck a bit which got him into trouble!   I don’t let him do that, and he knows it, so I growled and pushed him forwards; making him work hard for that bit of bad behaviour….

Now for the scary part.  Yup, it was time to mount up.  At this point I am moving slowly and methodically, forcing myself to concentrate on being calm and just breathing.  I have noticed that when I get nervous I tend to rush or ‘flutter’ about; so if I concentrate on each motion as accomplishing a certain task, that helps to calm the stampeding hamsters in my tummy!

I get on, thanking my lucky stars that he stands like a rock for mounting, which is always nice if you are feeling a bit squiffy about riding.  I settle into the saddle, marshalling my thoughts.  I have a plan today – I want to try out some new training techniques that I have been reading about.  So here am I thinking out loud as I absently scratch Sparrow’s whithers, as much to calm myself as the horse!

“Ok.  Think forward.    Get off his face.   Remember the 1-2-3 aid; seat bones, leg, then bucko-you-so-don’t-want-to-go-there with a touch of spur.   Control his feet with your legs.  Bump one side then the other if he’s sticky.  Keep your shoulders level.  Stay out of his face….”

I take a deep breath, asked for forwards with my seat, then had apply a touch of leg as he obviously hasn’t figured out a seat aid yet! 

And then we just walked around the arena.

Big deal?  Oh yes, it is!

It’s the first time since I bought Sparrow home that I’ve been able to get him just walk around the outside track of the arena.  Yes, he didn’t like the boggy muddy corner.  Yes, he was looky.  But he was looky at a loose, head-down, relaxed-ish walk.  When he felt like he was going to come off the track I nudged him ever so slightly with my inside calf, then the outside, alternating until he straightened up and relaxed. 

By the time I had gone around the arena twice on the left rein, changed rein and made my way down the long side on the right rein, I was grinning so hard my cheeks were hurting…

I had him.  He was there, in my hands, in front of my leg – listening…  I felt the tears well up.  I have spent the last two months stressing.  I didn’t know how to break through to him.  I didn’t know if I would ever get past his resistance without some serious fighting with each other.

Before today, even when he was obedient, it was like he was literally obeying because it was easier to do that then to make a fuss.  But the problem with that is that I could still feel the resistance. That slight stiffening in his back.  The tiny drag of his hind quarters.  And the hard neck.  My goodness, that neck!  I knew I didn’t have him, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it.

But today?  Nothing but softness…  We trotted in 20m circles.  We spiralled and leg yielded, and did even better spirals after that.  Sure,  he was crooked at times, and I would check my shoulders to make sure that the crookedness wasn’t my fault.  He would also loose focus once in a while, and I’d have to remind him that I was there, but you know what?

He always came back to me.  And that is just great.  I even decided to walk him out on the first little part of our trail ride, despite the fact that he’s been so spooky and boogy when riding without a trail buddy.  I felt confident doing so because I had a plan and I knew what to do!

I made sure he was pointing forwards while maintaining a loose rein, and kept him moving by nudging one side then the other when I felt him getting ‘sticky’ and worried about leaving his buddies.  We walked to the end of the jump paddock with minimal fuss, I halted him, and we just sat there for a few minutes then I dismounted.

I loosened off his girth and bridle and gave him the signal to graze.  He had a few mouthfuls of clover and then we walked back up the paddock together.  It was so funny!  You could see him thinking about the ride as we walked back.  When he’s doing that he kind of knots his brow and chews a bit, looking very thoughtful. 

I lead him back while he was ruminating, and pulled off his saddle.  He stood so quietly while I unbridled him and put on his halter.  Then he looked at me.  I looked back and…  I don’t know.  We just had a moment together, acknowledging the connection we found today.  I kissed him on the forehead and hopped over the fence to get his feed.  He dropped his head to graze – the moment was over. 

I am still euphoric.  What a day – what a ride!! 

And for those of you that are interested in the new riding/training techniques I’ve picked up – go read the Mugwump Chronicles if you haven’t already.  And I mean start from the beginning and read all of her posts type read.  Seriously.  Do. It. 

I learnt the nudge-nudge trick from her{although she calls it “bumping” – I just translated that to mean an English riding nudge.  Dunno if I am right, but it works!}, how to get your scaredy cat/barn sour/herd bound horse out on a trail ride by himself, why thinking forwards is so important, the principle of feet {control the feet and you have control over the horse},  and stuff that I haven’t even had time to process yet, but I know is lurking in the dark recesses of my brain… 

Best three days I ever spent.  And I proved that today by riding Sparrow and finding my horse.  I am so stoked.

See ya!

bonita

My Goals for Sparrow

I thought I’d write this down so that I had it clearly in my head.  This way I can track my progress with my real goals and not get side-tracked with perceived goals in competitions and the like.

• To ride him bareback on a trail ride/over jumps/where ever
• To have a ‘broke’ horse that trusts me, no matter how scared he is
• To have him soft and forward going – engaged in the work
• To enjoy our riding together!

Yes, I want to train and compete in dressage to the highest level we can make it to – but I want that as an aside; something that happens on the way.  It’s not the sole purpose, or even the focus of our riding together.

See ya.

bonita

Progress

Yes, I think I can say it: we are making progress.  I am so excited! 

Yesterday it was lounging time again.  Particularly as he’s had a five day break over the last week - though I am sure he and everyone else thinks I’m nuts for asking him run around in endless circles!

In fact, I got asked yesterday if I ride him much, sort of in a “Are you one of those only ground work people or do you actually ride your horse” sort of way….   > <   Yes, yes, I DO ride him.  I just try to make sure that the majority of our work together isn’t schooling at this point.  I am focusing on learning by experience{trail rides and in hand ground work} and balance and obedience conditioning{lounge work}.  I am trying to create/encourage a good work ethic in my boy, and I think we are going in the right direction.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit hard to find people to trail ride with at the moment; either the timing doesn’t work so well for one or the other of us, or the type of horse/ride I want doesn’t work.  We are walk-only trail riders at the moment and calm, experienced horses are essential trail buddies for Sparrow’s peace of mind.  Which means that my options are rather limited at times.  Still, that tangent aside, I really think that all this ground work/lounging is good for him.

I can really recommend it if you have a young, green horse that’s a bit squiffy under saddle, or bolshy on the ground – lounge, lounge, lounge them until they can run in circles in their sleep.  I find that it’s helping me to learn to read and lead Sparrow and I think he’s a lot more relaxed after doing it too.

We also spent some time chillin’ and relaxing down by the new jumps that appeared in our jump paddock.   The new girl brought in her set and boy, oh boy, are they pretty!  We now have proper stands, wings, jump poles, cups and even a few ‘scary’ fillers for the ponies to get used to. 

Sparrow was actually really good facing up to all the new, bright horse eating monsters.  We just walked around and through and over some ground poles and although he was ‘looky’, he didn’t really turn a hair. 

I know it’s because I was on the ground leading him.  I have learned that he will pretty much relax and calm down for anything if there is someone by his head leading him over/near the scary things.  Which is really good on one hand – he trusts me enough to listen even if he’s spooking.  On the other hand, I have to figure out how to transfer that trust in me on the ground to when I am in the saddle. 

I am not sure how to do that at this stage, but personally I think that the more we do together, the more that will happen.  So we will wait and find out.

More updates later – I am trying the Pessoa system on him today so we will see how that goes!

See ya!

bonita

Why am I here?

 

I’m just thinking – typing the first things that come into my mind…  So this is going to be a bit of a ramble that hopefully makes sense in the end. 

I think I’m over-horsed.  I’m not quite sure how it happened, it’s not like I’ve never had experience with horses that are too much for me.  I have, and I’ve handed them back/onto someone else far better suited to their needs.

But with Sparrow, it kind of snuck up on me.  The first few rides on him were perfect – cantered him without a care, he felt just fine and I loved it.  That’s why I wanted him. 

But then he bucked me off during that one lesson.  I was told I scared him, but I don’t really know why it happened, and I didn’t see it coming.  He tossed me as easily as a pancake and ran.  I got back on, and we continued like nothing happened.  But something had.  I guess that’s when the first seed of doubt was planted.

Then I moved him to his new paddocks, but I waited a week to ride him until I was having a lesson with my instructor.  I told myself it was because that way she could help with any initial teething problems, but now I wonder if it wasn’t just because I was too scared to ride him without her?

Ever since then riding Sparrow is a battle for me.  Thinking about riding him makes my stomach twist into little knots.  I’m usually ok once I am on him and riding – but I think my reactions to his behaviour are more extreme in that I am more subconsciously worried when riding him, and I have noticed I will have a ‘bigger’ reaction if he does something.  If he freezes for instance, I don’t just push him on, I pause for a split-second, thinking that he might rear if I ask him to move off with anything stronger than the softest leg and seat aid I can give – more of a gentle suggestion then a command.  It’s no wonder he ignores that so often and just stays there. 

I don’t mind handling him on the ground.  I just poke him over when he gets in my space and if he gets agitated, I just send him in little circles around me until he calms down.  No, the main problem here is riding him and the main problem here is me.  My nerve.  It’s gone.  I’ve lost it with him. 

So why am I persisting?  Because I really feel that if I can work through this, I will be a better rider - no, actually a better horseman overall.  This horse is teaching me so much more than any horse I’ve had before.  He’s teaching me to be more clear, more precise and more accurate as a rider.  I can’t muddle my legs aids, he just won’t do what I ask if I do.  I’m ok with that – I WANT to get better, I want that so very badly.

He’s also teaching me to read his signals and body language in a way no other horse has.  Most of my horses have rarely had repeat issues over one particular thing.  Sparrow is far more sensitive and fearful then any other horse I’ve had.  I know that it’s partially his temperament, and I’m not going to change that, and it’s partially due to his age and lack of training and experience – that I can change, for the better or for the worse.  To me it feels like he will simply go one of two ways – either learn to calm down and trust me even when he’s afraid, or just learn to blow up and freak out.

I don’t know if I have enough confidence in my abilities to be the leader he needs so that he learns to calm down and trust me.  I think we have made some progress, like I mentioned in my last post, but I’m not sure.  I don’t have that confidence that I feel I need to see this through without one or the other or both of us getting hurt.  It might be because I can’t afford lessons with my instructor more then once a fortnight – which is hard.  More than ever I need a knowledgeable eye on the ground to assesses how we are going and what Sparrow is saying to me when I can’t read him myself.

*sigh*   And reading that last paragraph over, one thing stands out to me.  I just don’t have the confidence.  I think that I am a fairly good rider, although I have tons more to learn, I know I am handling him fine on the ground, but something isn’t clicking under saddle and I guess it’s that green, young horse unpredictability that I am feeling in him that is spooking me.  I’m not used to it, but it’s part and parcel of where Sparrow is at at the moment – and probably will be until he get a few years and a lot of mileage under his belt.

I read on Equestrian Ink the other day{The Young Horse} that a young horse, no matter gentle or well trained they are, will have significantly difficult, maybe dangerous, moments. 

…Inevitably it happens….eventually there is a day when the young horse acts up. Horse spooks or bucks or bolts—person is dumped and hurt, or just scared, and things are never quite the same again. Person has lost confidence in horse and perhaps horse has lost confidence in person. Sometimes confidence is regained, sometimes not. But overall, it’s a predictable story that could easily be avoided…

That’s my story to a T.  I got bucked off, but I didn’t get hurt, at least, not physically.  The damage is my confidence in Sparrow.  I just don’t trust him like I used to.  The question is – can we work through that – can I work through that – should I work through that?  Will he benefit from my persistence{or stubborn refusal to give up if you like}, or will it just end up badly for the both of us? 

…If you want a no-drama horse, choose one that is eight or older. If you choose a younger horse, be sure that you are Ok with some “dramatic” moments. Because you are very likely to have them...  

Am I ok with drama?  Yes, I don’t mind it.  Am I ok with unpredictable drama?  No, not really.  Am I going to be ok if I keep riding Sparrow?

….I don’t know.

Is that alright?   

bonita

And I fell off Sparrow again…

Yup, I did.  But it’s ok!  I was actually really happy with how the whole schooling session went yesterday – Sparrow did really well!  Yay! : D

It was interesting, because I wasn’t sure that he would behave.  It was a hot, sunny afternoon when I arrived at the paddocks, but in the two minutes between saddling him {complete with pulling faces on his part, some side stepping which I corrected and a growl on my part} and putting on his bridle a really fierce wind whipped up and blew in some nasty looking storm clouds.  Sparrow’s head went into giraffe/Arab/TB mode, and I was thinking that there might be a possibility of some trouble, so I debated whether to lounge him first or not.  But then I didn’t really have the time, and I wasn’t going to wuss out of my ride, so I led him to the arena instead, shutting all the gates behind me. {Even though the “gate” for the arena area isn’t a gate, it’s two rope strung across where the gate used to be.  Somebody stole it.  Our arena doesn’t actually have a fence either – it’s all rather open.}

He stood like a rock for me to mount {whoever trained him to do that did a good job!} and we got on with it.  A few jogs here and there, a bit of *stop* “Oh lookit!!  My mates are over there!” and a lot of “Yikes! That-horse-eating-barrel-has-moved-AGAIN-you-can’t-tell-me-it-won’t-jump-out-and-nom-me-how-‘bout-we-walk-over-THERE-instead”s, and he finally started to drop his head and relax.  10 minutes later we were walking around calmly and listening to leg signals.  Yay! 

We just did some simple schooling, walking, figures of eight, 20m circles {which aren’t quite 20m yet, more like 19m ‘cause he doesn’t want to “touch” the outside track… Grrr.}, trotting large and in circles, and in figure of eights.  I practised my leg position and my two-point position to make things harder for me, and we did a few serpentines. 

I was walking him past the horse-eating-barrels {they are painted bright green and white and sit just out side the arena} in a shoulder fore, working on the “let’s keep to the outside track at a straight walk, not a jog or veer, kthx” and he was slowly starting to listen to me, and not spook. Of course we had to be right next to the barrels when one of them went “Bung!” as the metal cooled down from the heat.  Sparrow went Ahhhh! *Jumps for his life*.  Stupid me lost my seat and I accidentally dug a spur into his side, so he promptly skittered away from that and I just slipped off the side and landed in the dirt at his feet clutching onto the reins. 

He then peered down at me with a “What just happened?” look on his face and I looked back at him and said “I fell off you goof.”  He actually seemed sort of relieved when I got up and patted him!  Away, then it was desensitization to barrel type noise time, so I walked him up to the barrels and started banging, kicking them, and knocking the buckle of the reins on them.  He actually hardly reacted to the noise at all, so that was good considering that he is quite sensitive to sounds.  When he looked bored with the whole business, I hopped back on and we continued our nice calm walking around and our shoulder fores past the barrels.  A little bit more skittery about the barrels, but really no worse then the beginning of our work out; still listening to me and really that was it! 

I was thrilled at the end of the ride.  He did really well considering that the wind was whipping around in trees, everything from long grass to weeds to leaves was constantly moving and rustling and shaking about.  The fact that I got calm, relaxed ‘plodding’ from my four and half year old TBx for most of our schooling session says progress to me, particularly when just two rides before the only time he would relax would be half an hour to forty minutes into our session, and then it would only be for a few minutes because I would reward him and end the ride.  A trick which seems to have worked well! 

In summary, I think he’s trusting me more and that’s great.  I have only had him for three months, and three weeks out of those months I didn’t ride him at all, so all in all, we are actually doing okay.  > U <

If you manage to make it to the end of this rather long post – kudos to you!

See ya!

bonita

Just Have to Say -

 

Sparrow and I had a really great lounge session this last Sunday.  It wasn’t very long, but it’s always nice when your horse is glad to see you and is happy to come up and say hello!

We didn’t do anything special this time {although I am planning to introduce him to the Pessoa system soon}, we just went into the round pen, which is on a slight slope, so it’s great to make the work out just that touch more difficult.  Spaz did a lot of cantering, he has a ton of excess energy at the moment and I am beginning to think that it’s probably not just ‘coz of all the grass seeds. 

He was on rather poor pasture at his last paddock – the place was very rocky and weedy with sparse grass, which generally means a lack of energy for young horses unless their grazing is being supplemented regularly.  Since he’s come to the new place two months ago, he has not only put on at least 50kgs or so, he’s also grown into his hammer head, so he doesn’t look half as gangly or dorky.  My riding instructor also think he’s had a growth spurt which may be well true but I sure hope it doesn’t continue to long.  ; P   It’s far enough from the ground from the height he’s at at the moment thankyouverymuch….

Anyway, he was a lot softer on the lounge then I have seen him before.  Not quite mouthing, or licking his lips, but definitely softer and more attentive.  Woot for progress!  : D

See ya!

bontia

Make or Break – Part 2: This Gets Real

Continuing on from Part One:  Training Tantrums.

We enter the arena and I think that there might be a botfly bugging Sparrow or something ‘coz he keeps on kicking up with his hind legs but then I’m like – “Mmm, actually, now that I think about it, maybe not.”  *applies spurs*  Miraculously, the kicking stops!  Huh.  How ‘bout that.  *rollseyes*

Note:  To clarify, the spurs I wear are 1inch dummy spurs, blunt and soft.  I use them as training aid as per recommended by my instructor and only when necessary.  Just in case you were wondering.  : )

I start off by pushing him in a trot, we trot up and down the arena, turn to head back up and, just like I expected, horsey *BLOWS UP!!!* 

He starts tossing his head, nose to the sky {seriously, my nickname for this guy is “Giraffe” – his head gets up THAT high; the funny thing is that he looks like an Arab when he does that!!} while running backwards and trying to pull the rein away that I am opening up to circle him.  He is NOT happy.  He felt like he was going to do this:

as soon as he could.   At one point his feet DID leave the ground, although to be fair it was more like this:

He is scrabbling, twisting, shaking, pulling, spinning while I am fighting to get his head down and around in a one rein stop to END this nonsense. 

The one rein stop is very effective to get a horse’s head out of the air, as well as to stop him going backwards, but it’s actually really hard for me to pull his head right in at this point because he KNOWS that if I get his nose, I win. 

I sort of manage it, not fully as I was just not strong enough to get his head all the way around, plus I think my rein was too long; but did I get it enough to stop him.  I move him forwards and decide to try a little trick I’ve read about on some of the Western training blogs I read.  They call it working “patterns” and my understanding is that it’s type of competitive discipline where the rider puts the horse through a series of quick and complicated manoeuvres.  Translated to English riding I call it “Don’t give the horse time to think” so I started thinking manoeuvres out loud and getting Sparrow to do them as fast as possible.   Example:  trot, walk, turn left, turn right, figure of eight, trot, halt, trot, walk, 20 meter circle, figure of eight, across the arena short, go large, walk, halt, turn right, left, right, diagonal, serpentine, etc. 

I didn’t plan these manoeuvres, and I found that saying them out loud helped me to do them faster which is what you want.  I don’t know if it worked in terms of overcoming his resistance, but he didn’t muck up again and I could see his ears flicking back and forth; he was listening to me which is a good sign.  I think he was surprised by my quick and random riding; it made him switch on to me which is definitely a good thing.

However, he was still stiff through his back and neck through all of this.  It was only when he spooked in one corner of the arena and we did that corner a couple of times to work it out, that on the last time we did it, I felt him stop resisting.   I got one moment of softness from him – real, true, ‘I am listening, tell me what to do’ suppleness, so I brought him down to a walk and called it a day.   I don’t know if it was the right time to stop then, he wanted to canter a couple of times through the manoeuvres, but I never asked him to – my gut instinct told me to finish right then, but my horse-sense is telling me that although the battle might be over, the war is not yet won…  The onion metaphor comes to mind, and I’ll discuss that in part three. 

See ya!

bonita

Make or Break – Part 1: Training Tantrums

 

Well that’ll learn me!   Sparrow has had a three week holiday and today he behaved like tantrum-y toddler on a sugar high.  Which he just about is – a toddler, I mean.  And yes, for three weeks he sat in the paddock eating grass seeds the entire time…  *sigh* 

Of course I didn’t mean for him to have that long of a break, but I got sick for a week, then it was Christmas, and then the family all went to Khancoban for a week.  It all adds up so fast! The long and the short of it is that things did not go well today. 

Of course I expected the usual shenanigans, he is a horse after all, but I didn’t realize that as a green four and a half year, three weeks without any handling does not work in my favour to say the least!  It’s more like oh, half a year off?!

We started off well enough – half an hour or so on the lounge, walk, trot, canter alright with a bit of slowness responding to “walk on” and “whoa now” – but like I said before, grass seeds = excess energy.  I was happy with the work out.  We mounted ok, but when I bent over to check the girth, he started scooting backwards, tossing his head side to side, nose in the air and I could feel his hind quarters dipping like crazy.  I spun him in a circle to keep his head {and feet!} down and then sat and wait until he relaxed.  {I won’t lie, I needed to get my heart rate down as well… I hate feeling like a horse is going to rear ever since I had an OTTB rear up and fall over backwards while I was riding her.  She landed next to me thankfully, but it was a close one and I really, really, really don’t like rearing now!}

Check and tightened girth, then moved off.  He needed a little refreshing on turning corners properly, {bend, not straight} but other then that we were ok.  I didn’t want to do too much schooling with him as it was our first day back, so I went to take him on a small trail ride. 

Him:  *looks longingly over shoulder*  We go back to the paddock now yeh?

Me:  No, we aren’t finished for the day, but look!  Trail ride!  Yay! 

Him:  *drags feet*  But I dunnnwaannnnaaa mmmmmuuuummmm……

Me:  Seriously, it won’t be long and you’ll get to see some fun stuff.

Him:  NO!  I WON’T  *plants feet and does best imitation of turning into a rock*

Me:  Uhhuh, no you don’t, come on now…

Him: *whirl-spin-go-home*

And yeah…  Granted, it was his first time out on the trails at his new paddocks without another horse, but really, his jibbing was a simple, “No, I won’t and you can’t make me.” 

So we spun around, pointed back out down the trail, spun again, and walked a few more steps.  Got cranky, did the rock impression, tossed head around, spun, spun, saw the hind quarters and the head at the same time{!!}, spun, walked a few more steps – well, you get the picture.  Lather, rinse, repeat.   I think I got him 80ish meters down the track before I thought that I could safely turn back without him “winning”. 

The reason I did so was that the trail where we were battling it out wasn’t the best for that kind of thing.  For starters the grass is up to his knees, so you can’t see the ground beneath; how slippery it is, rabbit holes, rain degradation, that sort of thing, and then there was the proximity of the barbed wire fence because this was a rather narrow lane way.

Of course even though we were walking home the silly horse had to pull another rock, toss, whirl move…. And I am like “What the?” and he was all “Oops, I don’t want to got that way! Okay, we turn around now”.
> O < Horses!!

*deep breath* Anywho, I must confess I am rather shaky with all of these goings on; as previously mentioned I hate rearing horses and Sparrow certainly does a marvellous job of feeling like he’s about to blow sky high as well as feeling like if he just got one chance he’d buck me off in a heartbeat {which, if it was mine, would be faster then you could blink…  : / }.

I was thinking in my head what an idiot he was being and whether or not I wanted to push it and try to work it out of him.  The chicken in me was all “Well, you got those last few steps up the trail from him, you could call it a day”  then the stubborn part of me was like “No, you shouldn’t give into him”.  The clincher was when my horse-sense chipped into the conversation with a “Well, if you were my horse I’d certainly get into you” and then I thought “Lol, lol, he IS my horse.”  And that was that.  I would love to say the heartbeat went down, but it didn’t.  However, steely resolve entered my breast {or something like it anyway} and I knew it was time to go into the arena and battle the beast…  But that tale can wait for part two! 

See ya! 

bonita

Bite the dust

Yeh, so I bit the dust today, and not in the I’m-riding-fast-and-it’s-very-dusty-&-windy way either…  Joey, whom I have rechristened Sparrow incidentally, bucked me off today.  It was totally my fault though ~ I scared the living daylights out of him apparently!

See it went like this: we are in our lesson, trying to achieve a true right canter lead.  He does the left lead beautifully, but on the right, if I go straight for even one stride he’ll pop in a flying change{!!} and switch leads.  So we’re working, working, working on it; pushing past counter canters, and disunited canters, and he gets it right.  I wanted to make much of him, but couldn’t pat him or he’d take advantage and switch leads again. 

So I cheered.  Rather loudly too…  Ooops!  Next thing I’m above the horse, knowing I’m done for, hitting the ground{butt first ~ it hurt}, and rolling over while Sparrow heads for the gate.  My instructor said that he totally freaked out.  Which is all well and good for him, but of course I’ve got to get up and do it again, hopefully sans the bucking and falling off part!!  : /

I won’t lie, my legs were shaky.  It’s been quite a few years since I’ve taken a fall that bad.  I have come off a couple of times, but it’s never been a “What-The-Chocolate-Fudge-Brownies-Just-Happened??!!??” fall for oh, at least six years?  I have been able to feel it coming, rather than today’s BAM!  OUCH!  Oh, I’m off…

It’s rather disconcerting to say the least.  Still, I hopped on and the boring end to the story is that we did it again, got the correct canter lead, managed a full circle this time, and didn’t even have a hint of trouble.  I don’t think Sparrow did it to purposely dump me, but of course there is no WAY I am going to give him any clues that he can do that again!!!

In fact, I hope that never EVER happens again.  I used to think that I was pretty good a sitting a buck, but I didn’t even feel this one coming, so I certainly don’t want to test him {or me} out.

On the upside, I think he’s going to be pretty nifty at dressage ~ he was doing beautiful flying changes on both leads, left and right.  It was funny, but he taught himself to do them all in one go!  The first time he tried it on the left to right lead, he only changed his front end, and ended up cantering disunited, but after one or two turns like that he got himself sorted out quick smart! 

He certainly is exceedingly fast on the uptake, and he’s good at sorting his own feet out.  I am really happy with how the whole lesson went barring the one, rather major, incident that saw me tumbling in the sand. 

He’s moving into my paddocks this weekend, so we’ll see how he goes with a change of scenery.  Should be fun!  : D

See ya!

bonita