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| " Mr. Blue" |
I’m way behind on my 100-day challenge but I hope to be able to catch
up soon. This past weekend was the first chance I was actually able to
work with the horses. After their little adventure down the road I needed to
wait for the farrier to come and replace Blue’s lost shoe and make sure his
pastern was feeling better.
Donnie and I worked on some clicker training and he did really
well. He’s a very smart horse and loves to interact with people.
The reward treats didn’t hurt his enthusiasm either. We also started some
basic longeing. Nothing more than an easy walk, trot, and whoa on a
big circle. He hasn’t forgotten anything he’s learned over the
years. He’s got beautiful balanced movement and is impressive to watch.
I decided to ride Blue in the indoor because it was cold and windy and
threatening rain. When I positioned him at the mounting block and climbed
the step ready to get on I had a sort of “I can’t do this attack.”
I don’t know what it was – PTSD syndrome from all my trouble with Dusty
at the mounting block, or flashbacks to the anxiety she caused with her mounting
antics. Whatever it was, I couldn’t get more than my foot in the
stirrup. I finally gave up and hand walked Blue around the arena a few
times giving myself a good talking to until I was ready to try again.
When I was in the saddle the plan was to have an easy day for both of
us working at the walk to revisit basic rein aids, which are Blue’s
biggest issue to be addressed before advancing to other gaits. True
to form, whenever I asked him to yield to the rein in one direction he
would resist and counter bend in the other. After years of riding
many different horses, I know my aids can’t
only be misleading him. No, he's discovered an
evasion which requires the least work while getting him out of
the most work... At least in the short term. "Oh, you were going to ask me
to canter around this arena for a while? Um, that sounds hard. Hang on,
let me just pop my shoulder in here and walk very slowly
kinda sideways so you can deal with this for the next five minutes
instead. How would that be?" Frustrating, Blue, very frustrating...
He has a tendency to be lazy--always has been, and I expect he always
will be. He's also very clever. Together they make working with Blue a
challenge. Over the years I’ve tried to develop what I call “thinking in
the saddle,” meaning that when something isn’t working I need to come up with
an alternative plan. When Blue would counter bend, instead of fighting with him
(which is never productive) I would simply ride him into the new bend and
we continued working in that direction for a while. This went on and on
until Mr. Contrary finally gave up. After some very nice circles and
figure eights in both directions we called it a day and ended on a good note.
It’s hard to work with a lazy/stubborn horse and not get frustrated.
Having lots of patience with a healthy sense of humor doesn’t hurt
either.
Quote for Today
No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the
saddle. ~Winston Churchill
