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!!