I think Sissy still has some trust issues, maybe with
men. Lately she has been a little hard
to catch, so today after I caught her I spent some time just rubbing on
her. She has a spot on her belly that really
gets her to licking and chewing. I want
to make this as pleasant an experience as I can for her.
Today also marks the first time I haven’t started with a
little ground work. I just stepped up
and started riding. Please make note I paid
attention to where her head is, if she had been twitchy and jumpy…I wouldn’t
have gotten on.
We did a pre-flight check…can I bend her head both
directions? Yes. There is some resistance there, but she is
lots better. Will she flex at the
poll? Yes. Again she has resistance, but way better than
in the past. Will she back up a
little? Yes. Resistance is still there, but enough that I thought
we could move on.
So we started working.
I long trotted her and then asked for that next step, which is the lope. She picked it up, but as with most young
horses (in a small pen) she couldn’t hold it for very long. That is ok for where we are. I also did a lot of circling, asking for that
soft release as we trotted.
She was doing really well, so I moved out into the big pen
and asked her to trot some long straight lines.
It is a constant state of movement, long straight lines…now circling…now
straight lines…now stopping…now circling…you get the idea.
Once we were finished and I had rinsed her off, I took her
back to the box and we backed off of it several times (which she handled like a
champ). Next was the stocks and when she
was ok with that…today we added some more pressure. I backed my stock trailer into a shallow
ditch we have and started asking her to step into the trailer. She has some fear issue with getting in,
which I suspect leads to the way she can (or can’t) get out (as the case may
be). But with patience and time she was getting
in. Next was getting her to back out
like a big girl. We started with just a
step, stop and calm down. Take another
step, stop and calm down. As we got
closer to the back of the trailer, she got into a panic and shot gunned out. So we got back in and started the process
over again. As with anything you ask for, was she was
better at the end that when we started?
Amber will need to spend a lot of time getting her to calm down in the
trailer. Calming down in the trailer is
set up by the drama (or lack thereof) of getting in and how the ride when
you're driving down the road. Everything and anything that can be done to set a horse up for success.
She is doing very well and I think that Amber will have a
lot of fun going forward with this mare.
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