So tired....

Yesterday we had a very beautiful warm day in the Pacific Northwest. I took Diamond to the Arena and played with her and the big yellow ball for a while, letting her sniff it and kick it around. She’s still not 100% sure about it, but her curiosity is winning out a bit.
After a while, we had some boarders who wanted to ride, so we left the cool shade of the arena, and headed outside to the full sun round pen.

About a month ago, Trainer X and I attended a clinic about starting horses, we wanted to go and see if there were any new ideas we could learn, and ways to work with horses. The first thing the clinician told us was “Tired is your friend” to get the horse tired, and they will be less likely to fight the lesson... so I wanted to try that theory out with clipping Diamond.

I grabbed the cordless clippers, oiled them up nice and slick, and went back to the round pen.

She ran, she galloped, she cantered, she trotted, and she jogged whatever she wanted to do, the only rest allowed was if she would allow me to put the clippers while turned off, on her nose. As soon as she moved her head away, she had to move back to the rail and go around at any gait she desired, so long as it wasn’t a walk. She stopped many times, and came up to me and allowed me to touch her nose briefly, and a couple of times, she’d slow down and look at me, I’d hold the clippers up, and she’d give a big sigh and keep on moving, she didn’t want to be touched with them.... Finally, after about an hour of this game, she’s sweating and breathing hard so I grab her halter and lead rope and snubbed her to a post on the round pen. She pulled back and fought for about 10 seconds, and then just gave up and stood there while I clipped her nose, chin, and bridle path.

I hope that next time, she’ll be remember it wasn’t so bad, be more cooperative, and not have to tire herself out so much.


On a side note, it’s 12 days till we leave for Sacramento to watch Trainer X and Acacia compete in the Extreme Mustang Makeover Contest, and I have always wanted to ride a “wild mustang” so I asked TX to wait to work her until I got there and I could ride after the lesson...
As I mounted, a flock of birds landed on the roof of the arena and scared Acacia, and she scooted forward enough to knock me off balance (with one foot in the stirrup, the other half way over her back) but I recovered and didn’t fall off. Once we both were breathing steady, I asked her to move forward. We walked all over that arena, serpentines, straight lines, circles, and she was beyond AWESOME! She is so relaxed and comfortable to do her job; it was an amazing experience to watch the transformation from a wild scared horse who had never been touched before, to a comfortable, confident, willing saddle horse. GREAT JOB TX!!

Day at the Ocean

This Sunday of Memorial Weekend, we took Sugar and Baby Diamond to the ocean for some beach fun. Diamond got out of the trailer and thought it was so cool! She was checking everything out; Bikes, cars, kites, dogs, the big big water... all sorts of distractions for her. She stood great to get tacked up, and was alert and absorbing everything that was going on. Unfortunately, I had switched some tack around at home, and grabbed the wrong bridle, so I didn’t have her bit, she only had her halter and lead rope, with a pair of reins. We started out walking the horses in hand and Diamond quickly became very calm and relaxed, so Hubby hopped up before we knew it, he was trotting past Sugar and I, they were going over drift wood logs, checking out the sea weed that had washed up on the beach, and crunching over empty crab shells.
We played on the beach, and in the water, it was a perfect day, about an hour into the ride, the clouds burned off, and we had blue sky, and a mild wind
Sugar had a harder time absorbing the change of scenery, and we spent a bit more time walking in hand before mounting, but once we did, it was incredible!
I’ve ridden many rental horses on the beach, they are pluggy, and herd sour horses that drag their feet on the way out, and death trot on the way back in. This was so different! These were my own horses, and I had done the training on Diamond to make her the confident little girl who took the big wide ocean all in stride.

Riding, avoiding the bit, and other fun stuff last night

I have been riding Diamond consistently now, about 15-20 minutes at a time, and only at the walk in our soft arena. On our last ride, she had decided that she was going to pull against my rein aids, so I had planned to ground drive her before riding this time. She has always done great being driven from the ground, and did just as great the first few rides, but has decided to start testing the waters. Normal kid stuff (I have a teenager at home, I know all about testing the waters LOL)
I ask Hubby to tack her up, and let him know that I’m going to ground drive her before riding tonight. He comes out of the barn with the headstall and riding reins, and declares “I’m just going to ride her”. Ok, this didn’t sit well with me for a couple of reasons. First, I want to correct any mis-behavior before it becomes a habit, and second, he knows NOTHING about horses other than you get on, kick them, and go.... (Yes, it drives me NUTS and he has no desire to learn anything else)
Knowing that one ride, that he desperately wanted, would not derail her training; I gave in and let him ride. Instead of riding in the arena, he wanted to ride in the fresh green grass... what does Diamond want to do? Eat it of course!! So now, they are in a battle for her head. She wants it down eating the grass, and he wants it up pointing off into the sunset. After watching him struggle for a minute with her, I went over and brought her to the gravel parking lot where the grass would not be a distraction. Hubby seemed to be happy with the intervention, but then became frustrated because she wouldn’t move. Well that’s because she doesn’t understand that kicking her sides means to move, she thinks she’s in trouble. This is a problem because hubby doesn’t want to learn to be a better rider. He doesn’t want to learn the cues I have taught her to move. First we cluck once, that says “please move”, then I squeeze with my calves, that means “Move forward” and finally, if it’s needed, I squeeze with all my leg, sorta digging my heels into her sides, and that means “MOVE NOW DAMMIT!” So, hubby is kick kick kicking her and gets frustrated and says “I need a pair of spurs!” OH NO YOU DON’T! There is NO reason to spur Diamond when she is simply not responding because it’s unclear as to what’s being asked of her. I again, go up to them, take the left rein in my hand, and lead her forward. She walks to the end of the parking lot and freezes. She does not want to walk on to the gravel road (from the gravel parking lot). Now mind you, she’s been out of the parking lot plenty of times, we’ve hand walked her many times up and down the road. After some encouraging from me, and some major praise at every step, she finally got all four feet in the road. We kept walking about another 15-20 feet with stops about every four steps. We turned around, and she walked non-stop to the barn. She knew where home was!! LOL
After that frustrating experience, Hubby gets down and grabs the driving reins and says “She needs to steer and stop better” (Boy, isn’t that what I said to begin with?? LOL)
I change to the full cheek snaffle, and we go into the arena where Trainer X is free lunging Acacia in a perfect circle with no lead or line on her. Acacia was so focused on the task at hand; we did not disturb her one bit! (Good Girl Acacia!!).
I put the ground driving reins on and ground drove her all over the front half of the arena, stopping, backing, right, left, serpentines, figure eights, everything I could think of to keep her paying attention to me and not the commotion in the other half of the arena... and she responded perfectly. I made sure my aids were consistent, and weren’t any stronger than when I’m in the saddle (we tend to get a little braver and stronger on the ground than when we’re in the saddle at the mercy of this 1,000lb animal LOL)
After I was satisfied that she was responding properly, Hubby got back on and I observed from a distance... it’s amazing the things you can see when you’re not involved in the situation.
Diamond responded much better to the right and left rein aids, she did not stop when asked, but took about 5 more steps each time, while pushing against the bit, or throwing her head up to avoid it altogether.

To keep that avoidance from happening, I am going to start riding her in a running martingale,

which will encourage her to keep her head down, and also build some of those much needed back muscles.
As a side note, she now lunges on the line both directions!! WOOHOO!!!

Lunging

Last night Diamond learned how to lunge on the line.
She really had no idea what I was asking her to do, until I thought and thought of how to break it down to her.
Step 1 – Hold lead line in left hand and have D facing me
Step 2 – Lightly tap her left shoulder in a rhythmic manner until she moves it out (even a lean was good enough to stop the tapping)
Step 3 – Ask her to keep that shoulder out and walk one circle around
After what felt like tapping for an hour, she finally leaned out, and I immediately stopped the tapping and gave her lots of good girl praise! The second time, I think I tapped longer, and I so wanted to quit because she was just staring at me with her “I hate you” look!! LOL She did try to run me down that time, but luckily, I moved out of the way just in time, and was able to continue the tapping. After a couple more “mow mom over” attempts, she finally got that if she just leaned away, or took a step to move her shoulder to the outside, that annoying tapping stopped.
We finished with a trotting circle and all it took was a ton of patience, and about 20 minutes. I am so very proud of my girl!!!
Tonight, we will review lunging to the left, and perhaps start the lesson on the right side.