My Birthday Weekend…
Yes,
Michael turned 47 on Friday. Who would have thought I’d have made it this long!
Of course I wanted to ride into my “new year” with Brody so after work we
headed over to the El Dorado County Fairgrounds. We pretty much had the place
to ourselves! It was going to be a review day because we had plans on Saturday
that would really push the horses. We double checked that Brody and Argent were
using the thinking side of their brains, did about 30-45 minutes of ground
work, including playing with the Pop-Pom of Doom. Everything went well. Then we
saddled up. For Brody the riding part of the evening was all about transitions
up and down gaits. He did pretty well. We even worked on better elevation in
his shoulders when moving in a circle. H is getting stronger and he really
tries to give his all. The funny part is when his body sort quits before his
mind does. Gaits that were nice get all wonky and sitting or posting become
really difficult. A one rein stop and a break is the best solution. Then you
can end the session by doing something he is good at along with some Leading
Beside for a cool down. We make it a game of sorts with lots of praise and
rubs…cookies too if they are close at hand. Argent and Laurie had a breakthrough.
They started loping together! As most of those reading this know that is a big
milestone in a rider's life! Laurie overcame some confidence issues and got her
boy to do a lap or two tonight! There was much rejoicing!
Saturday
found us once again at Cedar Springs Livery & Stables wit Gale and her mare
Janie. The weather was great and the horses were feeling a little sassy. So off
we went to the round pen. Brody was not his usually happy self. We got a change
in attitude in the round pen with lots of direction changes and yields of the
forequarters and hindquarter. He quickly realized the error of his ways and the
Brody we all know and love came back. From the round pen we did some
groundwork, focusing on several exercises that we humans were having challenges
with. With some coaching, support and the Arena Mates (small booklets that
describe the exercises and help you to trouble shoot any issues you may have)
we made progress and improvements. The horses seemed to be enjoying the scene
as well. Then we went into the covered arena. This is where things on
interesting. As Gale was getting ready to mount up, her mecate somehow got over
Janie’s back and softly wrapped around her back leg. No biggie…until Janie
looks up, sighs and then decides that yes this would be a great excuse to start
bucking! Well THAT is unacceptable We helped Gale get Janie to use the thinking
side of her brain my doing lots of direction changes and sending/ C-Pattern
work around anything she remotely showed an over reaction too. We wrapped it up
with some Leading Beside and Janie was Miss Mellow! Brody got to work with Gale
under saddle while I worked with Janie. After switching horses and doing some
more work in the arena we headed out to the trail course. The weather was
really beautiful! We did LOTS of moving over and around the obstacles and the
uneven terrain. Walks, trots and lopes…and lots of transitions occurred.
By the end of the day we all had wet saddle pads, had long
rides and focused on concentrating our training! Laurie and Argent were loping
all over the place and the gin on Laurie’s face really indicated that she had
overcome a personal challenge! It was awesome to see.
Sunday we
were back at the Fairgrounds Arena. We had the whole place to ourselves! Since
we have not spent as much time working with Brody and his girthing issues as we
should have, today felt like a good day to tackle it. So we did our warm up an
ground work routine then focused on desensitizing him to the pressure around
his middle using the lead rope (at first). Once the concept of the rope around
the girth area was understood it was easy to mix it in between other exercises.
Brody showed real improvement at Side Passing down the Fence taking little to
no touching on his shoulder and hips to move in a controlled and steady pace
down the fence. Then we saddled up in the arena (we had not done that in the
arena before). Brody reacted slightly but no where near his reactions prior too
the work done today. It seems we’ll be changing our approach a bit to help him
get over this issue! We introduced Yielding the Hindquarters at the Standstill
on the ground and under saddle and Yielding to a Stop under Saddle today. This
was not difficult to teach the horses because of the work already done on the
ground.
With Brody we worked on keeping his shoulders elevated/level
when making a turn at the lope. He tends to drop the inside shoulder so we
wanted to help tweak that. At first when asked to raise the shoulder he broke
into a bouncy trot. Not real fun to sit or post!
Eventually he figured out what was asked of him and he
tried. It is harder for the horse to do that one might realize and we took
breaks and easy walks between attempts. The session ended after we took some
video of one another riding and doing exercises. It was illuminating to see
what we looked like as compared to how we felt. It was a really nice way to end
the workout with the horses and humans feeling a bit tired but more confident
and improved. After dropping the horses off at home we hit a local road house
for some amazing burgers and ice cold beer with friends. Does not get much
better than that!
No comments:
Post a Comment