Back in the saddle

So even though I’ve had a lot of interest in both the boys, plus a whole bunch of people that have come out to view and test ride, I have yet to sell either Joey or Copper.  Which may or may not be a bad thing – I don’t know!

The market is exceedingly sluggish at the moment as we are expecting a national election in September and no one want to take on any big expenses (horses included) until we see how that shakes down.

That means I have plenty of time to catch up on my riding apparently…  Well, sort of!  Time is in short supply these days (funny that!) but horses I have aplenty!

l knew I’d have to get back on Joey after he bucked me off – mostly for my confidence more than anything else.  I was going to take it slow, and ride Copper for a bit before hopping on Joey, but as it turns out that didn’t happen.

I have been back to see the doctor about my elbow three weeks ago, and they were really happy with the progress that was being made.  I don’t need surgery, or anything like that (yay!), but it’s still going to be 3-6 months more before my elbow is completely healed. 

That means NO FALLING on it!  Otherwise, it’s very likely to break again.  Not fun!

So that was why I was going to take it easy.  However, I had someone call up to look at Joey, and my demo rider wasn’t free, so guess who ended up riding Joey?  (>.>)

Really it was a toss up between the easier going, but less predictable ride (Joey) and the fresher, stronger, but more predictable ride (Copper).  And I ended up riding both of them.

Since then I have ridden Joey again – yesterday in fact – and he wasn’t as well behaved as the first time.  He was bucking, and trying to blow out through the outside rein at a canter, (which did nothing for my peace of mind, I can tell you!) but I was prepared for that, so never really gave him the chance to take it any further.  We did end on a good note; a forward  trot and then a short walk down the outside of the arena to finish off.

It wasn’t a long ride, but in the end I think he knew that he wasn’t going to get away with intimidating me into giving up, and that’s really important. 

I was happy with that, and I am glad I have gotten back on him, but I am more sure about selling him now.  He is just mucking around and trying to pull it over me, and I just don’t want to be dealing with that sort of brattish behavior.

I don’t get to ride often enough to really work it out of him; I don’t have the time even though I so wish I did! *sigh* 

It’s one of those awful predicaments where you sort of just have to try something new and hope it works out for the best I suppose.

At least I can know that it is definitely going to better for him to have more saddle time!  That’s a comfort.

See ya,

bonita

Spoke too soon!

Ya'll know that whole "Joey's going really well thing"?  Welp, I spoke too soon.

He bucked me off on Saturday and I ate dirt.  Hard.

One evening and a whole day in hospital later and I have a cast on my left arm from my fingers to my shoulder.  I have fractured all three bones in my elbow - the radius, ulna and humorous, have a random floating bone chip, plus some contusion of the ligaments at the back of the elbow.  Thanks Joey...

The long story short (as I can't type very well) is that he was being a brat and didn't want to continue on our canter circle past the other horses, so spun and bucked at the same time and tossed me off.

We've hit the next level of resistance, and it's just too bad that he managed to ditch me at this point.  I don't know quite how we are going to address this, but ground work will be a big must as he is not listening.  I could theorise as to the reasons why, but when it comes down to it, he is a horse that doesn't want to work.

It's not because he's in pain - his tack fits, and his feet and teeth are done regularly.  It could be because of his past experiences, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he is very intelligent and is extremely fond of getting his own way, and as I mentioned previously, he doesn't like hard work.    How to change his attitude there is the part I am totally stuck on.  I'm not sure where to go from here, but I will ponder and come back to that later.  For now, I am looking at potentially 6 weeks+ before I can ride again, *le sigh* so for now -

See ya!
b.

The Return of the Beast – Episode 600

~  * The culprit himself looking all cute and innocent in his new rug… *  ~

*sigh*  What is it they say?  One step forwards, six steps backwards?  That sounds about right…  After Monday’s nice and fun ride, today was something of a blow out. 

It started off well enough, he was so quiet on the lounge that I only did a couple of circles at walk/trot on either rein – yup, I wanted to get on and RIDE!

We walked around the arena, we did our 20m circles and we even went past the scary stuff ok!  Then I tried to sneak in some pole work like I did on Monday.  *huff*  Yeeeeaaah.  That didn’t work. 

Joey would not go over those damn poles.

And I know it wasn’t because he was afraid.  He just didn’t want to, so he was being an absolute snot about it.  We ended up wrestling over this for a good 30 to 40 minutes – he was doing everything he could not to listen to my seat, leg, then spur aids.  He was kicking out, jacking up, walking backwards, scooting sideways, bucking; you know, the lot. 

The darn horse actually stepped over the first pole at one point then went backwards again when he realized he’d done that!  > x <

My approach to the situation was pretty simple:  he could stand and look at the poles for a little while, then I would quietly ask him to move forwards, my aids were applied stronger and stronger until he stepped forwards, then I would immediately release the pressure. 

He would actually eventually get up to the poles with some fussing but when I asked for the next step that is when he’d get shirty and start trying to run sideways around the poles/go backwards.  As soon as he started going backwards I would rouse on him and make it very uncomfortable for him to be doing that, he would chuck a tanty, then would eventually stop facing the poles again because I wouldn’t let him turn or run away from them.  No circles, no side steps, just plain old facing straight at the poles.  That’s when I would sit quietly. 

We went backwards and forwards too many times to count and eventually I decided that unless I had all afternoon to keep this up I’d need a slightly different tack or we’d get nowhere. 

I pushed him up to the poles one more time and before he could get sticky or tense I hopped off him.  I asked him to walk forwards and when he refused I made him go backwards and sent him around in tiny little circles around me when he wouldn’t go backwards anymore.  Three or four attempts like this and he went through the poles as quietly and calmly like there had never been a problem in the first place.  Honestly, butter wouldn’t have melted in his mouth.  Not a foot wrong, not a fuss.  I KNEW it!  He was just being a brat – testing the limits.

One good thing that came out of this is that I know I can handle pushing his buttons.  He wasn’t happy with me today, and he let me know it.  I could handle it and even doll out the appropriate disciplinary action when he needed it.  No, kicking at the leg or spur aid is not on.  Neither is running backwards, bucking or jacking up.

That does up my confidence level – I now know that I can handle his temper tantrums and that even though he doesn’t want to obey, at no point did I actually feel unsafe/in danger.  Not happy, and definitely not comfortable or relaxed{!} but still, okay.  I didn’t feel like he wanted to kill me, he just wanted to do his own thing. 

Still not sure where I am going to go from here – I don’t think that getting on and trying the same thing tomorrow is going to be any kind of productive solution.  So I am thinking that I am going to cull it back – get him used to going over one pole on a lounge circle and then transfer that to a 20m circle over one ground pole under saddle.  One step forwards, two steps back.

In the mean time, he will still be doing pole work on the lounge/in hand and I think we’ll definitely be doing more work on backing up.  He has to realize that if he can only back up if I want him too, not as an evasion, and he also has to realize that if I want him to back up the length of the arena he had better darn well do it, just because I said so!!

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