Catch up!

We've been playing around on the 45 ft line a little here and there. Let's just say that I need increase my rope savvy! :) That is a lot of rope! Yesterday we did some yo-yo's on the 45 ft line over a pole. I was really focused on straightness, and trying to get her draw back. Her butt always drifts to the left while backing is what I noticed. 45 ft is a L-O-N-G way away too! We also did the figure 8 at the walk and trot. It went really well, in fact better than I had been getting. Much softer, less ears pinned. We rode freestyle for awhile. I usually just don't use the reins but have them there. She was offering the canter yesterday, so we cantered (I was bareback, with no pad and noticed how much I missed my bareback pad and it's stickiness!) and it was smooth, with a good rhythm for 6-8 strides for a couple times.

The day before we had ridden in the evening. Usually I am at the barn in the morning, while my kids are in preschool/school. In the morning there is no one around usually. Every once and a while a friend will show up. But the evening, wow! There were so many people! It was 8:30pm when I got out there so it was dark. That just leaves me the main arena to ride in as it is the only one with lights. I did some light warm ups in the round pen on the ground. Then we went to the arena. The UNCC (college) team was having a lesson. There must have been 6 of them, plus others just riding like myself. Talk about thresholds for Duck. We have come such a long way. Even though now she pins her ears still when other horses come into her bubble, I don't lose all control. I remember when I first started riding her and went to my first clinic with her. I had almost zero communication with other horses in the arena. She would just pin her ears and lunge at them, forgetting I was even up there! So now the worst was her getting a bit rushy if they were next to her too long. I will continue to play with it. But our brakes still work!

The day before this I played quite a bit on the ground and then rode some freestyle. The freestyle has really helped my seat. Now I just need to get better at cantering. I still have a gripping reflex when cantering. We did bulls eye a couple times and I put a treat on the barrel to get her thinking to the barrel. Well when I rode the next day all she wanted to do was play bull's eye! She kept spiraling down around barrels, and even the jump standards! I would like to learn more about the fine line between accepting what they offer and being the leader and calling the shots.

That same day I rode bridle less for awhile, following the rail and doing figure 8's etc. I still love it!

We have also been introducing the flag on the carrot stick. Friendly game with it. She is ok in zone 3,4, but still goes RBI when in zones 1 and 2. I have been trying to retreat but she still turns away and can't look towards it (and freezes up), so I am trying to go real slow but keep it in my program.

That is what we've been up to! October is going to be crazy busy. I am working a bit extra, but will have 2 lesson with PNH professionals in October! On the 17th, 1* Annie Shank is coming to our stable to help all of us PNH students along as part of her 50 hrs of lessons she needs to log with PNH. Then on the 27th 3 of us will be heading to York for a lesson with 3* Jesse Peters! I am so excited!!!

Question Box

Yesterday I finally got up the nerve to play with the question box. Why would I need nerve? Oh yeah did I mention that this is what we were playing (and not so well) when Duck went lame the next session way back in June? Well, it was. Question box at the trot to the left. I was trying to get her relaxed and not have to correct on the circle. She kept running out. I guess I should have listened to the feedback that she was DONE with it! LOL

So yesterday I went to set it up in the lower arena. Nope, it was too hard and crunchy for my liking (like it was when she hurt herself). So I turned her loose in that arena while I moved everything to the main arena. I realized after I set it all up that I had put my markers (chairs) in the wrong spot. Oh well I'd just work around it. They are just guidelines anyway, right? :)

We warmed up on the ground first. I have been playing with getting Duck to canter on the 22ft. Our canter riding isn't great, and then it dawned on me that we really haven't cantered much online. She either breaks gait to to a trot or gallops like a mad horse. Really no inbetween there. So I had just did a snappy back up with her and sent her off to the left and she took off! I let her drift to the end of the 22ft rope. She came right back. WOW! I guess I amped her up a bit to much or I had too much "I'm going to tag you" feeling! Either that or she just wanted to GO! But away she went, running like a mad horse. I decided to just stick with it. The nice thing is that she is getting better running fast. Not tripping as much and she isn't pulling me as she's going, there was actually quite a bit of slack in the line which is good! After about 7 laps she slowed down and cantered 1 good lap. So I quit there. I used the CS to slow her (which was a complete halt!) So that is good too, starting to get more downward transitions with the CS online.

So we rode the question box pattern starting at a walk and even though it has been 3 months, she still remembered the pattern and to my surprise did it much better than last time in that I didn't have to correct her to stay on the circle hardly at all compared to in June. Trotting was better too, but she still FLIES around at the trot wanting to break into a canter (and did a few times). We played with it both directions and when she finally slowed down for a lap I quit.

Then we cooled out riding at a a walk and following the rail. This went really well, she didn't stray from the rail at all and had a really nice, forward walk. And like always we ended with some grazing time on our way back to the barn.

I love my horse!

The bridge incident and setbacks...

So even before our 1st bridle less ride I think I didn't mention that about a week after we got home from our clinic in June Duck went lame on her left front and it has been kind of a comedy of errors since then. About 2 weeks of rest, one vet exam including a nerve block and a horse chiropractic visit later we were ready to roll again, until the bridge incident.

So I have to preface this by saying that the play area is by the big pond. We have a bridge, pedestal, trailer, barrels and the pond there to play with. It's great but the storms we kept having in July kept blowing the barrels into the pond. So we had 6 swimming barrels. After a couple weeks Liz was kind enough to "fish" the barrels out of the pond. Thing is, they were on the FAR side of the pond. Liz asked me to take the farm's Kubota to go get them. So I did. Then I set them all upright on the off side of the bridge so they wouldn't roll down the hill into the pond again.

The next day Duck was doing much better and I was cleared to ride. So I saddled up and had a few hours to ride. I had signed my boys up for a 4 hour camp Mon-Thurs that week. So it's Monday and I figure I'll head down to the playground. Everything was going really well.

We'd been playing with front feet on the pedestal and then the trailer. So then I figure we'll go over the bridge which we've done several times before. Well I figured the barrels would be just fine over there. I had a fleeting though that I should move them. Of course I ignored it...

So Duck had put her front feet on the ramp a few times and so I asked her to go over the bridge. Well she got on at an odd angle and ended up with her front feet on the tall flat part of the bridge and the upright barrel under her belly. (she is nowhere near tall enough to have that fit under her, even with her front feet on the bridge). She didn't panic although I was feeling really tense. She sat there for what felt like an eternity. Then she lurched to get her back feet on the bridge. She tried so hard but her back legs came up short and she ended up scraping quite a bit of hide off her back legs. Needless to say I didn't get to ride all week, and was still letting her heal the next one as well. Too bad I didn't go with my gut instinct to move the barrels...

There's a good reason to listen to your gut right there. I was lazy and Duck paid the price. I haven't been back down there since. I want to rubberize the sides so that will never happen again. It's just plywood, but it still scrapes pretty bad when they hit it like that.

She's almost all healed up now, but it has been several weeks. Meanwhile I think I lost a ton of leadership points grazing for weeks at a time.

I've been getting a lot of feedback from her that she isn't enjoying what we are doing. I've been trying out the 45 ft line and her confidence hasn't been great on it. Our liberty that had been so good when to pot as well. And I am trying to figure out where it all went bad and rebuild. Of course it doesn't help that she has round pen phobia. She just wigs out in there for liberty so I am always playing in the big arena.

We have ridden a couple more times bridle less, but generally there are other riders in the arena so I have just been dropping the reins, not taking the bridle all the way off.

Our other issue lately is that we're real heavy on the forehand, and she is constantly tripping because of it. So I am needing to look into how to get her to shift that weight back some.

But the last couple weeks with school starting I haven't done hardly anything with her because of a bunch of other commitments but am going to try and get back into it next week again.

I could sure use A LOT more arrows in my quiver right about now!