Full of of it for Spring

It must be spring. Or at least Duck is acting like it is spring! She is frisky, and downright fast sometimes! She has a lot of buck in her lately which is OK when I am on the ground, but not so hot when I'm trying to ride!

So this week I have been playing around with the 45 ft line again. Just trying to use it (on the dog) to get used to it. I've put it on Duck a couple times, but she does seem a bit "lost" out there with all that rope! So for now I am just trying it here and there and trying to improve my rope handling skills.

Yesterday I went to ride and she was full of it online. So much energy she cantered 6 laps on the 22ft line for circling game! Yippee! Then she added in a gallop and about 3-4 good bucks! We played for awhile longer and I felt like she was pretty in tune so I mounted up.

I must have been W-R-O-N-G! She kept giving me really nasty ears and wanting to canter when trotting so I was doing transitions downward to get her back in tune. This is all while playing the corners game. After a few laps she decided to canter off and I decided to say "and a few more ounces" to keep her going. She didn't like the idea that I was asking her to go past the corner, so she promptly BUCKED a huge buck and then stopped very nicely in the corner. WHEW! I got off and tied up her hackamore so I had the 12ft to play on. And then I backed her, a long ways. And she is still full of it, so I decided to have her burn off some more energy. I sent her over every jump in the arena. Most of them were cross rails, but 2-3 were straight rails. 2 of them were 2 ft straight rails, well the other one was higher, probably 2'6" maybe a bit higher, I'm not sure. But she has been very hesitant to do anything other than cross rails and with all this newfound energy I decided to give it a whirl.

I sent her from the trot and she flew over it, turned and faced. Mind you I'm on the 12ft line and the standards are so high you can't throw the rope over so I am on the near side of the jump wondering if she's going to take off after she lands! But she didn't and then I stayed there in zone 1 and asked her to come over it again, and she did! With hardly any pressure!

And then she was tired out a little and not so energetic, so I got back on.

I had recently changed my shim pattern so I wonder if the major nasty ears were feedback from that. Today I changed her shims back and she still got some nasty ears when trotting but not near as much.

She does, however want to keep cantering when I am asking her to trot. I think that stems from the last serious play we did of "gaits within the gait" at the walk and trot. She wanted to canter while I was doing that and a few times I let her because she was in tune and didn't feel like she was going to buck! So we have done some passenger lessons at the canter, but we are still working on direction at the trot! She likes to get hard-headed and since my mustang was exactly the same I can only assume that it is me making her stiff. So I am trying the advice of "never, ever, release on a brace". I'll keep you in tune for how it goes!

The other news is that Duck got a new pasture buddy. Her pasture buddy, Kay that has lived with Duck since we moved to Sundance almost 2 years ago left a couple weeks ago. Now she has a cute black and white paint gelding named Oakie for a buddy. Duck owns the pen now though, before it was Kay that was top horse! She hasn't buddied up with Oakie too much yet, but she isn't running him all the way to the other end of the pen constantly anymore either.

Tomorrow we are headed to a Parelli play date! I am so excited to get off the property and practice our savvy at a new place! Hopefully someday I can get a trailer so I can actually start going on more trail rides! But that in itself is a whole different post for another day.