I have been busy socially in a way that is a bit unfamiliar to me. So much of my spare time over the last 6-9 months was spent at the farm working with Kiki, leaving very little time for me to do much socially. I was so worried about how I would cope after my journey with Kiki ended, but thankfully things have shifted around in my life outside of horses to allow for new adventures and excitement. I haven't missed her as much as I thought I would because of so many new distractions and I am really grateful for that. It's made the transition so much less painful.
Although last week was incredibly busy at work, my two best friends (that are married to each other) and their lovely baby we here visiting. It was chaotic, but really nice to see them and I got to spend lots of time playing "Auntie Niamh" and took some cute photos of him too.
Tah-Dah! Little Radley! These were taken on my lunch break at Rittenhouse Park near my office...somehow we always make the best out of the little time we have!
My lesson on Arizona Saturday was fine. No big breakthroughs there, but we had a nice ride outside (it was gorgeous) and I rode in tiny spurs. They certainly helped and we got some really nice trot work in the end. He's a very difficult horse to keep straight and riding outside was especially challenging as we had no wall or rail to keep us from riding around crooked. Once I got him to stop blowing through my outside hand and leg tracking left, he felt great. Forward, straight and round. The girl I was having a lesson with had to get off her mare after a few minutes because she was lame, so I let her hop on Arizona and canter him around a bit. Arizona continues to teach me something every time I work with him. Saturday, it was that he doesn't like new "things" in the barn. He's not a spooky horse per se, but he does get goofy around certain things (ie. a pile of blankets in a new place in the barn). This time, it was a group of 4-H girls sitting in a circle in the dark barn as I grabbed him from turnout. About 30 yards away from the barn he started acting like a maniac. When he DOES spook, it's BIG. Beth warned me to watch my feet as he started snorting like a dragon and danced around me. We stopped near the entrance and he was just bursting out of his skin. I got nervous, which made him more nervous (good job, Niamh) and finally someone from inside the barn came out, grabbed the lead rope and walked him in, quiet as a mouse. Sigh. He also has developed a bad habit of being difficult to bridle. It's extremely frustrating, but patience seems to be the only method that will work with him. Any sign of force and he shuts down. B said he's always been a bit challenging but that it's definitely gotten worse over the last year. I just have to sit there with my hand over his poll, bit lightly touching his mouth until he's ready. We don't want to use treats because he gets pushy around food and none of the usual tricks work to get him to open his mouth. It's much like working with a horse that won't load on to a trailer, everyone wants to give an suggestion/help you when you're standing there with a horse that is being opinionated. In my experience it's often better to wait things out...I know plenty of methods of getting a bridle on an goofy horse (*see Kiki) and none of those tactics are going to work with him. It's certainly not going to help my experience with this horse if somebody else has to bridle him. B and I have talked about riding him in a hackamore to see if he prefers a leverage set up rather than a bit. He grinds he teeth constantly with the bit so perhaps he would enjoy the freedom?
Glad you had some distractions after Kiki left.
ReplyDelete