Thursday, March 25, 2010

Driving #5 and Riding #2

I did not post about my driving lesson last week. Oops

I drove Corrie. She is a nice mare, but not the most cooperative. She has a bit of a stubborn streak. If you ask her to move up she will take one step with her front feet, but refuse to move her back. She really cracks me up! I actually like her.

We had a good drive until a German Shepard puppy, around 7 mos, came running up to us barking. Corrie spooked a bit. R put on the brakes and I handed of the reins. He kept tell me I could have handled it, which is probably right, but I had to make a quick decision. All in all it went well believe it or not. After that we went and talked to the woman with the dog, he had slipped pasted her and she was mortified. Corrie calmed down and then went about driving.

All in all it was a VERY good experience. It was a spook but we all ended up calmer than when we began. Frankly a spook with someone else there is great. I felt more confident, afterward that I could handle it.

Today I rode again. I rode Drew. Nice horse, not Bill though and I just have to get used to him. I was hoping to trot, but Drew had a little spook. Nothing big, but it was enough to put me on edge again. It was good though. I survived it, I didn't get off, I helped Drew to face what he was afraid of. I am learning how R. had his horses trained. We had some good discussion about training. We don't always see eye to eye, but we do mange to understand each other, or at least accept, the other's point of view.

Both of those spook were invaluable lessons. I am starting to remember that spooks happen. They happen all the time. As R. said once, when driving you may have 100 run aways that never happen because you catch it in time and defuse the situation. It is the same with a spook. Catch it in time and you can defuse the situation. Where I used to think I need to find a horse that doesn't spook, what I really need to find is the courage to deal with that spook and keep it under control.

Mean while back at the ranch:
Kinsey HATES needles. I mean I really should not be surprised, but I was hoping that I would be able to do shots on my own with her and that just is not going to happen. Luckily it was just a matter of finding a way to work with her. She needs to have her eye shielded. She can't see it, it was okay. The vet did a little neck twitch and then she was okay. No butt shot though, so we had to do one in the chest. We even got a coggins out of her.

Ropes don't seem to be a be deal with her either. So that is really encouraging. I would really like to get her working on the ground very well before I send her off. I am hoping to start ground driving her. I think that will be good for the both of us.

I was hoping to send her to a trainer in a few weeks, but unfortunately I had some terrible vet luck this week. It is goat related so I won't mentioned it here, but it put a damper on some future plans. I am going to keep riding and driving lessons though and maybe in a few months I can send her.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome job on handling the spooks!!

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  2. Great lessons and experiences. My driving trainer tells me to "just drive through it and stay on the road" when things get exciting like that. Easier said than done. I think it takes a lot of miles and experience to get to that point. In the meantime, it's nice to have a Pro onboard to help us through.

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