1. Feeling really good because of the coolness
2. Nervous because of the wind blowing
A prey animal, which a horse is, relies on its sight to see the danger. They look for movement, but when the wind it blowing...everything moves! So no matter how calm your horse is, when the wind blows...the horse will be on edge.
I started Belle out with ground work again, this was especially important today because of the wind. I want her focused on me and not so much on everything moving with the gusts. Once we had moved on to the desensitizing (sacking out is what I used to call it), the wind presented a challenge because it blew my blanket away from the horse on the downwind side. So there was a lot of moving around trying to stay on the upwind side so that the blanket would touch her. I then started approaching her with the saddle. This bothered her not one bit, so after pulling the saddle on and off several times...I went ahead and cinched her up. Now for the first time I generally don't pull the cinch too tight, just snug it up so that the saddle doesn't slide under her belly (there's a wreck you don't want to see). After asking her to move out and a couple of laps in the round pen, I tighten it up. This usually lets them let go of some nervousness and air.
She seems to be good minded today and none of this bothered her, so I asked her to lope some circles in the round pen. I also moved my plastic barrels so that she would have to jump them (the only difference between a buck and a jump is the planning!), she jumped over them and moved right out. No hesitation, no bobbles. All seems well and the "plan" is still in place.
 |
| A good day...done |
No comments:
Post a Comment