New Year!

Well its the new year and so far I have not been bucked, fallen or trodden on.

SO far so good.

I didnt count just getting off, because that is so far, organized and planned.

Case in point. Yesterday while riding Emma the horses in the pasture next to the arena started bucking and cantering around. Well this set Emma off and she went to go tear off.. Well I managed to get her head and get her listening back to me.. Of course we had to work at it, but she finally came back around.

Then when I tried to ride her through it again she lost it again. So this time I circled her up and got off, worked her on the ground until she settled, until she found it was not going to hurt her, and then I got back on and rode her through it...

It took time, it took me working through my own issues before I could even get to the horses...

You know what I mean...

Riding along, everything is fine, and sunshine and the next thing your amazed you did not fall off and now you have a rocket between your legs..

Yet now, I dont bother with the Wow I didnt fall off... And We never get to rocket speed because I am usually engaging the one rein stop until I get things organized in my head.

Now I need to get better at that..

I also need to get out of the get the horses feet moving, just to move, and get to the mind...

Yesterday Emma checked out because she got scared. My job was not to scare her more. My job was to help her find a place to settle, a place to get back into the sunshine. I caught myself falling into an old routine, and then when I backed out of it, she started to let down... Ah....

Ok now I just need to do that more...

Miss M... LOL for Mighty Mighty!!!!

The other thing I think we as riders need to start taking note of is, that a horse will build trust or distrust with us.

What I dont want to have happen is whenever she is with me the sky is falling, yet I can not control the situations. IE ride her in a box, inside of a box.. Yet I can try to limit the exposure to the "Lions Den" as much as I can.

One other thing I had mentioned before is letting the horse fail, letting the horse protect themselves, letting them work out their frustration.

It would have been wrong of me to punish Miss M for taking off when she got scared. Just as it would be wrong of me to pop her in the mouth with the bit when she shakes her head. I just need to give her the rein and let her work it out, and not let it start to turn into a problem.

Hard to learn.

Hi Ho

L