I Finally Got Mad!

Oh that may sound bad, but it was actually a very good thing to happen. Okay maybe not mad, but peevbed!

I rode Corrie on Thursday and she is getting more fit. She is thinning down a bit, getting a bit more muscle. We are starting to understand each other. Not quite there yet, but we are learning. Corrie is not sure that I mean what I say. I am not sure I mean what I say.

I think she also is a bit bored of the indoor and gets spooky just to liven things up. As we were riding around, after we did our ground work, she was still looky out the window. Then a bird landed on a blue barrel. I had a moment of "oh no", then she scooted, almost out from under me. I almost lost my stirrup and came off. But I didn't. (yeah me!) Then I had a few moment of "Should I just get off?" and then it hit me. She has enough energy to spook, but trotting forward is too difficult. Eff that!

I brought my energy way up, and asked for a forward trot and away we went. I was amazed that she was being so forward with out a battle. She would try to stop and I pushed her on. My mind filled with thing to do. We started making halt trot transition, at every halt we would so some flexing and then trot off to do it again. Darn mare can be darn sensitive when she wants to be!

I have been trying to figure out how to get her more forward with out bring out a whip. It is not that I don't believe is a good smack if it is well time and deserved, but like I said last time, I am not good at the "command" part under saddle. So finding out that just bring my energy way up makes Corrie step out is very encouraging.

So what is energy?

I have heard some pretty interesting responses to that question. Some think it is some new agey or natural horsemanship type of voodoo. Really it isn't. I want you to think about sitting in a chair. Your relaxing and just reading blogs. Basically you are at a very low energy level. You think to yourself, I really need to get up. But your energy is so low. So you sit there and work up a little energy to get up. Then you stand. That feeling you got just before you got up is "energy." If the phone rings and you jump up, that is a lot of energy. Does that explain energy a little better?

Corrie actually responds to my energy fairly well. Especially on downward transitions. That is how she was trained: if your relaxed, she is relaxed. Unfortunately I tend to be pretty low energy when I work with her. Another thing I need to work on.