You know how - no matter how many times you hear something -- and may even believe it (in theory) -- you still have to make your own mistakes before you truly believe it?? Well, that's what I did yesterday with Skittles: tested the truth behind the Parelli advice of don't be too direct line thinking/goal-oriented, and build the horse's confidence first before trying new things. I tested that with Gypsy last weekend, but I guess that wasn't enough... I had to test it with poor Skittles too.
Skittles hasn't been ridden since last November, so that was my "goal" yesterday: to get back on her and start working on her forward movement. And since she did well at the Parelli play date a couple weekends ago, showing no issues with the saddle, in my impatience, I took her out of the pasture and, after grooming her, I went straight for the saddle. The part that I conveniently forgot was that at the Parelli play date, I played with her for OVER TWO HOURS before putting the saddle on!!
So guess what happened? Yep, she freaked. She jumped sideways after I swung the saddle up on her from the right (the side she has ALWAYS had trouble with to start with!) which caused the saddle to slip, which spooked her more, prompting her to run off down the alley between my two paddocks, dropping my new saddle unceremoniously in the dirt, and bucking and snorting all the way to the round pen. I picked up the saddle and followed her into the round pen where she stood quivering. Whereupon I put the saddle up on the fence, forgot about it, and proceeded to ask for her forgiveness. You'd think I'd learn. ESPECIALLY with Skittles. Poor thing. I feel like such a heel.
So for the next hour or more I played the 7 games with her, completely forgetting about the saddle, which is what I should have done in the first place. If anything, Skittles is a GREAT teacher.
Eventually we circled closer to the saddle, then did some squeeze games against the fence where the saddle was, then did some "put your nose on it" games around the pen, including the saddle.
I made another mistake with the sideways game. She's really good at this, so naturally I kept her going at it until she blew up, then faced me with an incredulous look as if to say "WHAT THE HECK DO YOU WANT?!" Right, the release. I forgot the release. Sorry again Skittles! Sheesh. I swear I woke up with no brain yesterday!
Her confidence eventually started coming back (in spite of me!). I also did a LOT of friendly game with the rope and savvy string. Ropes continue to be a phobia for her. She's actually pretty good with ropes being swung around her when I'm close. But as soon as I move any distance from her and swing a rope, she's gone.
This probably would have been a good place to quit, but I didn't. I wanted to get the saddle on her (there's still that part of me that says "when you fall off, you just gotta get right back on," or "finish what you start"). So I was determined to get the saddle back on her. This time I didn't put it on her, but just walked around her holding it high and low and bumping her with it and then walking away. But because the saddle is so darn heavy, I probably did this less than I should have. Nonetheless, she let me put the saddle on her from the left side without any fuss. I then took it off and tried again from the right. More fuss (moving away, back humped up), but she eventually let me lift it up on her back (I didn't swing it up on her). I took it off again and repeated on the right. Then again from the left. She's definitely a LOT more comfortable with me on her left. Will have to make a point of doing LOTS more from her right. But for now, I just proceeded to do up the girths (again... goal-oriented).
Skittles has virtually no withers, plus she's "downhill" a fair bit at the moment because she's still growing. So I shimmed the saddle with large shims. But after I was done with her and took these photos, it looks like I still need more shims. The front is still a bit too low I think.
I did a few games with her with the saddle on, then mounted up. She moved a bit the first couple times I tried mounting, so I just stepped down, walked her around and kept trying until she stood still. She did after the 3rd try. I didn't try from the right.
I spent the next 20 minutes or so just being a passenger. I need to work on getting her to maintain gait. At the moment, this is just at the walk, let alone the trot. She pretty much did figure-8's near the round pen gate. A couple times she got almost half way around, but she pretty much stayed in the half of the pen closest to the gate. For now I wasn't going to be picky about where she walked, just that she keep walking. It was not easy. She's a stop-aholic. Each time she stopped, I would squeeze her to go, slowly moving up my phases. After about 15 minutes of this, she actually walked PAST the gate a few times and when she did stop, I would say she was responding to phase 2 fairly consistently. She wouldn't always start walking but she would respond to the pressure by shifting her weight. So I would release (yes! I remembered the release this time!). Then ask again until she moved. I never went to phase 4 (swinging the rope from side to side).
At that, I called it a day. Actually not quite, I yoyo-d her out of the pen after I got off. She wasn't expecting that. It wasn't pretty -- more sideways than backwards, well actually she'd go backwards but then try to turn and go out forwards, but by the 3rd try she was mostly out of the gate before she turned, so I accepted that. It was a good try.
I'll try to remember my brain the next time I work with the horses. In the end it turned out to be an OK session. Hopefully my next one will start out better as well (obviously the photos in this blog were taken at the END of the session!)
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