Experiements

I had a fun time riding today. I tried an experiment. Sensei is all about doing less, getting horses to work off of a feel. He does not get English riding at all, too much contact. Trust me we go round and round about this, but I have decided to just give in and do it his way. Good learning experience.

So today I decided to try to ride with no contact at all, just all off of leg. It was really interesting. I made my reins as lose as possible and then held on to the horn of the saddle to keep myself from cheating. Just just my legs. Now I have to admit that we did fairly well, but not perfect. I did a figure eight around two barrels, and even managed to weave some cones.

I did learn where her sticky spots were. Actually just going around the rail was the hardest part! Certain areas of the arena pull her into the center where as other push her to the wall. For some reason she is really pulled by barrels. Maybe I should do barrels with her. . . .Okay that would be a site, the poky little pony doing barrels.

After that I tried the same thing, but would just lightly lift up on the side where I wanted to make a correction. Still no contact, well okay, in my book no contact but in Sensei’s book if you touch the reins, it is contact, so I guess it depends on who you talk to. She was actually responding really well to the lightest touch.

I was a little tickled that I was riding around with no contact, steering my horse with only my legs, where as I few months ago if I did not have a death grip on the reins I would feel out of control. It really is amazing. I keep thinking, and where will I be in another 6 months?

I then tried something else that is difficult for us. Trotting around the arena, I mean all the way around without breaking. Poky little pony likes to break if she thinks she can get away with it. This is where I have a HUGE issue. I am not consistent. That would be in the saddle, in harness, or in real life. I told you, horses show you what your issues are, be it in the barn or not. I tend to get side tracked and want to do something else. So I made sure that we made it all the way around, at a trot. That took us quite a bit of time, but I did it.

Over all it was a great riding session. I was pretty proud of what we got done.

Honest vs Honorable

Lisa from Laughing Orca Ranch left a really heart wrenching reply to my last post. Check out her story of the bucking horse.

I think she brought up a really good point. Not all horses are honorable. I know that horses can tell who their rider is, they seem to even be able to tell when they have a filly or colt on their back. They know kids and novices. Some are really nasty with kids, while others will babysit. Who doesn't know a pony that would take off as soon as look at you when they had a kid on their back.

When Sensei was working with Kinsey and she was being such a witch I said in her defense, "She is just a horse." He replied, "She has choices." He has repeated this with other horses too. That a horse has choices about how they handle situations was really a bit of a mind bend for me. I never really thought about that before, but they do! A horse can chose her attitude same as a human. She can chose to be snotty or peaceable. Oh sure we will blame how they were trained or treated. Yet, to point out Lisa again, her mare is a perfect example, a horse can chose to be forgiving and work with humans. (I hope she doesn't me me using Apache as an example)

Apache reared with her last owner and has had some other issues। She never did any of that with Lisa। Apache was ridden in a Tom Thumb and her teeth where bad. Lisa fixed those as soon as she could, but even before all the fixes Apache had been wonderful with Lisa. Since the issues have been fixed, Apache as been as good as gold and better. Could this mare have decided that she was not going to trust humans? Sure. She could have turned sour and taken to all kinds of horrible vices. Again, I से,

Another horse I know is as close to saintly as a gelding can be. He is a great horse, and my first rides on him he was as careful as he could be. I mean this horse was serious about not taking a wrong step with me. To the point that he looked lame walking because he was just going so slow and deliberate. Yet I saw this exact same horse being ridden by his former owner. You have never seen such a turn around. Saintly ol' boy was down right snotty. He even tried to bite his former owner on the leg as she was riding. It was actually quite funny!

I read a number of blogs and bulletin boards. I read about lots of people's relationships with their horses. Some I just want to shout, "why are you still with this horse?" Honestly some of us let our horses treat us so badly and yet we would never tolerate this from another human.

I'll admit it, I have boundary issues. Again, Corrie points these weakness out. So does Abby actually, which is why Sensei says she is such a bad match for me. I can't keep her away from me, I want her near. This is a recipe for disaster with a horse as large as Abby. With Corrie, I can work on it. Yet both Abby and Corrie are honorable horses. Neither has ever tried to hurt me.

Abby will let me stand next to her and hang all over her, she stands quietly and carefully. Today I was just grooming her, (I know I know I should just stay away). She had gunk all over her back leg. I was working really hard to get it all off. The flies were bad and bothering her but she never lifted a hoof in defense when I was near. I would try to be sensitive to this and back off too. I also sprayed her. Although at one point something startled her. Now I was standing wrapped around her hind leg trying to clean it all up. Abby spooked in place, never putting me in harms way. She easily could have kicked out but didn't. She will, from time to time take advantage if she really wants to.

To point, I found a horse that will not take advantage of me to the point that either of us will get hurt. Corrie will let me know that I am blurring boundry lines, but she does not straight out take advantage of me.

Corrie! Corrie! Corrie!

That is what Madison and the rest of minis are thinking right about now. Every post is about Corrie! Corrie! Corrie! They insist that they are important too!

I have to agree. Although I am not doing a whole lot with them right now.

So this post is about the minis.

The minis are in seventh heaven right now without a "big" sister around. They have way more grass than they can possibly eat, just looks at them!

Even Rocky who is always a skinny mini:

They honestly are enjoying their new little band. Madison and Sophie, Ike and Rocky. Perfectly matched up. Not chased around, well Madison chases Sophie, but then they are back to grazing together again. I think Madison is really liking being able to be boss mare. Like it while you can kid!

Unfortunately I am not driving Ike because I have no shafts for my cart. Sugar Rock Farm cashed my check for a new pair of shafts, but now won't respond to phone calls or e mails. So I am out the money for the shafts and I can't use my cart. Sort of annoys me, but they are located in AL so I can not really just run over there and demand a refund. Anyway.

I have been doing working to get the pasture ready for, er, well just in better shape. :) Last fall I had plans to split to pasture into some smaller pastures and put in the T posts in. Then I broke my wrist, and then it was winter, finally they all knew where the posts were so I didn't bother to take them down. I was still planning on putting the electric tape up but, well plans change. I plan on doing my first several drives out there with, er, well just out there. It is enclosed and a fairly safe placed to drive and ride too. So with all the rain softening up the ground I was able to pull the last of the posts up. I would also like to put the goats out there some so I have been putting up that snow fencing that has wooden slates on the three rail part of the pasture so the goaties can't escape. Also there are some trees that needed to be trimmed so I don't hit my head on them while riding or driving. I have been very thankful for the cooler temperature to start on this work. Still not done, but good start.

Horses don't lie

They don't, just as honest as the day is long, as long as the truth is about us. Oh yeah, ever try to hide something from a horse, you can't. A horse knows when you are happy, scared, serious, and lazy. And they will take will show anyone around. Corrie tells Sensei much more than I do. It is rather annoying actually, to be tattled on by your own horse.

With my accident I now say that I spooked, so Abby spooked. She knew I was nervous and since she is a horse that looks to her rider to help her through things, she new something was up and spooked. I could tell it in her too. She was looking for the sound of the motorcycle in the distance. I remember just thinking: "please don't spook, please don't spook." She did.

I have to laugh when I think about riding a few horses after my fall: CJ, Bill, Drew, Corrie. The first ride on all of them was just awful. They barely moved, just walking as slowly as they could. CJ actually looked like he was afraid to take a step, but he did. One after another. I had such a hard time getting Bill to move forward, and Corrie almost went in reverse.

As a kid I had Hope. She was the best horse ever, and I was so much more confident then. When I went out to ride her she would get very up. She would have a little spring to her step and be ready for anything. Yet if I put a friend on her who knew nothing, she was as gentle as a lamb. I had a friend who would ride her when I was away at college. He would call me and tell me about how he took her out in halter and lead rope. I don't know why she didn't kill him, but she never took a misstep with him.

Corrie is showing some of my personal short comings right now. It is rather funny to have a horse tell you, "nope I am not going to do that, your not confident enough yet." Which is what she did today when I tried to get her to canter. She was going to trot as fast as she could, I could not bump her that final step up into the canter. Corrie was right. I'll wait a little more. She has also been showing me, where my personal weaknesses are.

As we are working with our horses, it is not a bad thing to take as step back and think about what the horse is trying to tell us. What are they trying to tell us about ourselves? What do we need to work on. Sure our horses barge past us when we lead them in from the pasture. Do we let others run over us too? When someone else handles our horse, how do they act differently? What does that say about them? About us? Maybe our horse become much more tense when we take the lead. Are we having difficulty letting the difficulties of the day go?

I have tried to hide for most of my life. I try to blend into the background and just go unnoticed. Corrie is actually calling me on this. She tells on me, I have a hard time bringing my energy up. I try, but she will totally match me. So if I let my energy drop she totally drops too. As we were doing ground work last week, I could barely get her to move. She totally matches my energy as I work with her. It was very frustrating. That is telling me something about myself. I need to learn to be more confident and not hide in the corner.

Later I went to Target to shop and I was working on walking around with energy. It was hard to keep it up so long. I walked down an aisle and a woman totally looked up as I approach, almost jerked her head up. I was rather surprised because so many people just ignore me.

Fearless Driving

Oh yeah, I love driving now. I feel so much more confident driving. Sensei is hoping I actually do get a little fear, because now I don't feel scared. I may be nervous from time to time, but I'm pretty sure I can handle it. So opposite of riding, where I am still working up the nerve to do stuff that I have done 1000's of times.

Which, when you think about it, is kind of funny. I have driven 13 times with Sensei, twice on my own with Corrie and maybe 5 times with Ike, my mini. I have had 1000's of rides though. So it would make more sense for me to be more fearful of driving, but it was those few episodes of fear in riding that really give me pause.

Silly right? I mean I should totally be so much more fearful of going for a drive. I think the difference is I have not had a really bad driving accident. I hope that I never do. My worst fear is falling off. I REALLY don't want to fall again and that is a bad fear to have when riding. Driving? I don't have that fear. Corrie has spooked, she tried to run off with me the other day when I was on my own, but I controlled it. She got a little spooky later on with the neighbors moving stuff. Again, I knew how to handle it. Sensei was out there working another horse and his only comment was that I should have held Corrie a little longer. Of all the time that he is telling me to use less rein, for once he actually thought I needed to keep contact longer.

Yet that lack of fear is really helping with my fear of riding. Funny how that works. I have been driving and ground driven Corrie out in the big dry lot and finally I rode her out there. That was such a big deal. If I had not been driving I don't think that I would be half as far along as we are. As I gain confidence in one area, it crosses over to other parts.

Actually everything works together. I ride, drive, ground riding, and do ground work. All four of them work to make Corrie a better horse. Sensei is a big believer in ground work. I have at least on lesson in ground driving a month. Not exactly my favorite, I admit, but when I can tell Corrie to stand, walk out of the arena to my car, come back, and she is still in the same place, that is impressive. Point and she moves. It is nice to have a well trained horse. My job is to not mess her up, which is why I do the ground work lessons.

Guess what I am doing tomorrow.

Fresh air is so nice.

Yup I rode outside.

I had a mini lesson with Sensei last Monday. He just watched me and gave me some tips. Corrie was still looking out the window and being a bit spooky. After doing ground works and ground driving I realized I was doing something under saddle, because she was fine the other times. A little tweak here and a little tweak there, thanks to Sensei's advice, and Corrie and I are doing much better. Inside is going so well. There are barrels, poles, and cones littering the indoor. I have been using all of them to our advantage and it has been added some variety to our workouts. We have been practicing all sorts of maneuvers. Weaving through the cones, around the barrels, through the poles. She is really responsive to leg.

On Saturday I had thoughts of going outside but Sensei was giving another client a driving lesson out there so I didn't. I didn't know how she would react and I want to tackle one new thing at a time. Sunday Corrie was really calm and responsive so I decided to take her out there after we rode inside. I really felt confident that I had control of her.

I was not as nervous as I thought I would be, although confident would not be a word I used to describe myself either. When I get nervous Corrie's head drops to her knees and she barely walks. Nice quality to have in a horse that is being ridden by a nervous person. She is steerable and has brakes, but not as responsive. That was okay. I was able to pick her up a little by the end. It was also hot and she has been already ridden for a normal amount of time. So I am sure the fat girl was a little on the tired side.

Corrie is just such a steady horse, not perfect. I keep saying that she spooks, but she really is not all that spooky. I think that might be more of me getting in her way. She is a bit of a butt head sometimes. Very much a brood mare, her default is to do as little as possible. Sensei keeps tell me that she is just enough of a challenge for me. I think what he means is that she is not about to do anything stupid, but that she has issues that I can safely work through with her, like being lazy and pig headed.

On the healing side, I find that I don't have to mentally prepare myself as much. I think about what I want to do, but not in such detail. I am using visualization, but not as formally. I think with this conquest I was thinking about it while I was driving. I do believe that now my skills are really dictating what I feel comfortable with. As soon as I gained control of Corrie's feet, I felt ready to take the next step. I don't have that control outside yet so we will just ride around the outdie area for awhile.

I do find it interesting to think back. I have not even owned Corrie a month, although I have been riding her for about a month. I have not been back to riding for more that a few months. It really boggles my mind. Although I think that driving has really helped a lot . Just a little food for thought.

Abby. . . I miss you

Abby is still at Sensei's. She has made some friends her size. In particular that little haffie mare next to her. No that is not Corrie. She had a fling with the perchie clyde on the end too. Unfortunately she does not have a good influence on those guys and they are getting hard to catch and is very bonded to the haffie.

I admit that I still just adore her. I love to watch her in the field. Sensei drove her the other day and I just wanted to climb up with him. She was not the best, but she has been driven before. She was so beautiful in harness. I just watched her going around.

I do occasionally go out to that field and pet her. Tell her that everything is going to be okay and she is going to find a great home. When I do that I am in awe of how big she is. So much different than Corrie. She is just huge. She knows it too and is just a bit pushy about it. Not meanly pushy, but still pushy.

She had someone come to look at her last weekend. She was on her best behavior, I'm told. Rode really well for a guy Sensei has do some riding work. Then the buyer's trainer didn't want to get on. Why? Who knows but probably just because she is so huge. She is such a big girl!

I am so sad to not have Abby anymore. I really want to bring her home, but she is not going to do anything here but eat a lot. Even though she pulls at my heartstrings, sometimes it is better to let the past go. I could not be doing all that I am if I still had her. I just have to remember that this is the best thing for the both of us.