Playing with Indy

I've been slack in my blogging, sorry folks! I've played with Indy and Jake (last couple weekends while a family came to "try them out") as well as Gypsy the other day and Indy today, but have been a lazy blogger. I guess that's better than not playing with the horses!

I've had a family interested in buying Indy. When they phoned to ask if they could come see her, I agreed, but qualified it by adding that I've been thinking I might keep her instead of sell her since she's been coming along so well. Well, that just made them want to see her more! Anyway, the family is extremely nice and I have no doubt they'd take great care of her (or Jake... they tried him out as well). They came two weekends ago as well as last weekend. So not sure where their heads are at, but if they decide to buy her or not to buy her, I won't be heartbroken either way. And I've probably made some new friends as well.

On Monday, I took Gypsy out for a short trail ride with my neighbour. I didn't do any ground work with her before heading out, and as a result, she was right-brained the whole time. Poor Gypsy. You'd think I'd learn. It was a beautiful day though, so even though Gypsy was all GO, and I had to do quite a few cirles with her, we still enjoyed it. That "pre-flight" check really is important... every time I skip it, the ride is more work than enjoyable. But when I do take the time to get her calm and trusting, the ride is calm and enjoyable.

Today, I took Indy over to my neighbours again (she has an arena and I don't) and played online and did some riding as well. I let her loose in the arena for a while to start and asked her to move out (she did, and seemed to really let loose!), then asked her to change directions a few times. She didn't always listen, but I eventually got her to respond and go the direction I wanted. She always came trotting back to me though, which is really nice. Then I put the 22' line on her and we did some squeeze, driving, sideways, circle and yoyo before getting on. Indy is so much different than Skittles. She always does what I ask, and she seems to do it fairly well, but I always get the sense she's only half paying attention, whereas Skittles is glued to me. Indy often objects at first when I ask her to do something (tossing head, little bucks), but will do it when I insist. Not sure if I'm handling that right or not. I guess time will tell. I'd like to eventually see more willingness (less testing). For the moment, all I've been doing is letting her have her little tantrum (basically ignoring it), but continue to ask until she does what I ask (patiently persistent). If any of you has an opinion about how to deal with that, I'd love to hear it. She's not being unmanageable, just constantly objecting or maybe testing me before complying. Maybe I'm not doing enough on the ground for her to believe I'm the leader before riding? Not sure.

Anyway, once I was riding her, we did lots of patterns around the barrels at the walk and trot, worked on straightness, moving off my leg... that was more difficult when I asked for sideways AWAY from the gate, then when I asked for sideways TOWARD the gate.... maybe I should use the gate to my advantage and worry about obedience later?? Anyway, I insisted she move off my leg even though we were moving away from the gate, and I got a couple tantrum bucks before she complied. I was aiming for a barrel going sideways and once we finally got there (kind of a wonky forward/back sideways), I rewarded her with some crunchies on the barrel.

Anyway, despite some questions, she's doing pretty well. I just need to figure out how to get through a ride without any "arguments"!

Skittles at Rafter XX

Today was a great day at Rafter XX ranch with Tamara and Tania. We need to do this more often! We met there at 9:00 this morning, took our time getting going which helped relax the horses, and let us chit-chat too! :-) I brought Skittles this time. I've been avoiding her. Well, not entirely, but I've definitely picked Gypsy or Indy way more than Skittles, simply because they're less challenging, so I can relax more around them and it feels less like work. I'm really glad I picked Skittles today though -- having Tamara and Tania provide feedback and advice was exactly what I needed with her because it really helped me improve my communication with her and consequently my confidence!

We spent 2 hours just on playing around on the ground... jumping barrels, weaving between pylons, trotting over poles, circling, changing direction and playing "stick to me". This was the first time I've played "stick to me" with Skittles and she figured it out pretty quick! Her tendency whenever I add pressure to her halter (pull on the leadrope) is to pull back and even back up sometimes. So I worked on getting her to move forward off that pressure by adding pressure behind her. Her first response was to scootch sideways around me, but eventually I got her moving forward and from there I got her to start trotting beside me, then stop and back up too. I think she had it mostly figured out after about 3 or 4 tries. Smart girl! (see video clip below). I do need to practice this more though, because I tried running beside her as she was trotting over the poles a little later, and she pulled away sideways again before moving forward. I guess it's really more "friendly game" and getting her to understand that me running beside her doesn't mean I'm chasing her! And I need to do it from both sides... she wants to keep me on her left all the time.

When I saddled her, I worked on keeping her head down like I did before and this worked great again. It took time, but each time I asked her to lower her head, she kept it there longer. Pretty soon I won't have to ask her at all.

Before I got on though, Tamara asked if I'm able to play the friendly game with Skittles (with stick and string) while she's moving. I've done it before, but she's phobic about strings and ropes, so it's worse when she's moving. Tamara suggested I work on that before getting on. So I did, and after several explosions from Skittles and with much guidance from Tamara, I eventually got her walking calmly in both directions while I swung the rope over and around her.

It's interesting that even though I KNOW I need to get firm with her at times, I still find myself tip-toeing around her when she goes right-brained. Having Tamara and Tania there to point it out and give me pointers (match her energy, don't let her pull/push me around, etc.) REALLY helped me and it really didn't take very long (definitely less than 2 days!) before she was walking calmly around me, licking and chewing with her head nice and low while I swung the string over her back. She was definitely more ready to ride after that!

We mostly walked once I got on her again (still a bit of the 'fraidy-cat in me worried about being dumped again), but after I told Tania I hadn't trotted her before (well, I did a bit at home in the round pen, but I don't count that because it was never more than a few steps in a row), she says, "well, why don't you? What are you waiting for?" So I did. And she did. Not for long, but we did it several times and she did some very smooth up and down transitions. What was I worried about anyway? So now we just have to work on maintaining gait and direction! But I was really pleased with how the day went.

Thank you Tamara and Tania!!