Part I – Fourth of July
Fourth of July – I had the day off so wanted to go riding for a while. Lisa and I agreed to trail ride, so I invited Betsy from just down the road. Our group grew when Lisa’s husband, Josh decided to come along with two of their guy friends. So, those guys took over the most broke horses and Lisa decided to ride their young mare, who doesn’t have a lot of saddle time. She figured that she would go well in a large group.
Since we were taking so many horses, she put the other two in stalls and we used the paddock as our access to the power lines. Now, I’m pretty used to being the green one in the bunch, with my horse feeling the need to tuck in behind somebody’s butt and hide “I’m not looking, I’m not looking”… But Sky today decided that she was ready to be the leader. Once we got on our way, I found myself being the one asking, “Which way?” and actually stopping her so everyone could catch up. Now, she has faked me out before, leading about ten minutes or so, then doing the dive and tuck behind the first available horse.
I guess all of my pushing her out into the front and beside other horses made her more confident. She led the whole way out, over bridges, through a little water, and through ditches and spooky stuff. Now, I should have seen this coming considering she was so proud-as-punch to be in front, but I somehow was surprised when we turned to go home.
She was now in the back and un-happy… grrr… now it was jig, jig, jig, jig Grrr… Double Grr… If there is one thing I really cannot stand, it’s a jig… jig,… jig… GRRR…
I seriously thought she was going to explode from the inside out, she had so much energy. I tried to get her to slow down, (no) tried to get her to do a trot (no), even asked her to lope (really no, that got us nearly bucked)… My gracious!
Luckily, Betsy wanted to show me how to get to her house so we separated from the group and after ten minutes, she was following Harvey with no problem. After that ride, I was pretty determined to fix that and in a hurry!
Part II – Clinton Anderson
Now, I’d been planning this since December. Of course I am disappointed that Marcia didn’t go and that I couldn’t give away the other tickets, but oh, well. My great friend, Beth came through with her trooperness and came with.
The hard bleachers were the worst part (my butt is still recovering!). The riding demos were the best part (I am now recommitted to doing reining and cow-horse someday) After seeing all the problem horses and issues people have, I am reaffirmed that Sky is a pretty good horse. However, she has a lot of finishing work to do to get her where I want her. I am taking away from the weekend to do more groundwork even when I don’t think it’s necessary, to train on the trail more, to work on refining the maneuverability of the different parts of her body, and to flex, flex, flex (which I have stupidly stopped doing)
Clinton Anderson has a ton of sayings, likes to talk, and does this annoying thing where he acts like he wants everyone to finish his sentence (all the time). However, I still like his methods. I love how he calls people tree huggers, is honest about what the horse is here to do for people, and is very black and white about what he does. I think he makes sense. He reminds me of Josh from NM but more talkative and full of himself. They both say basically that training is all pressure and release. That’s it. The horse does not share your emotions and does not think the way you do.
Anyway, it was good. Beth joined the No Worries Club and got a bunch of DVD’s. I hope she actually uses them to get control of her babies. She’s put so much into them to not succeed now. I showed amazing restraint and only got the $10 Training on the Trail book, which I hope will help me solve our little jigging problem! I’ll admit I wanted the stick and the halter/lead rope and lots of stuff, but I figure the method is more important than the stuff.
So, this week I’ll be getting ready to show at Oak Rise on Sunday. I’m not sure how to rein, considering we have a shank bit now, but still riding two handed. I’ll do a lesson with John this week, hopefully, to get ready.
Take care, Me.
Fourth of July – I had the day off so wanted to go riding for a while. Lisa and I agreed to trail ride, so I invited Betsy from just down the road. Our group grew when Lisa’s husband, Josh decided to come along with two of their guy friends. So, those guys took over the most broke horses and Lisa decided to ride their young mare, who doesn’t have a lot of saddle time. She figured that she would go well in a large group.
Since we were taking so many horses, she put the other two in stalls and we used the paddock as our access to the power lines. Now, I’m pretty used to being the green one in the bunch, with my horse feeling the need to tuck in behind somebody’s butt and hide “I’m not looking, I’m not looking”… But Sky today decided that she was ready to be the leader. Once we got on our way, I found myself being the one asking, “Which way?” and actually stopping her so everyone could catch up. Now, she has faked me out before, leading about ten minutes or so, then doing the dive and tuck behind the first available horse.
I guess all of my pushing her out into the front and beside other horses made her more confident. She led the whole way out, over bridges, through a little water, and through ditches and spooky stuff. Now, I should have seen this coming considering she was so proud-as-punch to be in front, but I somehow was surprised when we turned to go home.
She was now in the back and un-happy… grrr… now it was jig, jig, jig, jig Grrr… Double Grr… If there is one thing I really cannot stand, it’s a jig… jig,… jig… GRRR…
I seriously thought she was going to explode from the inside out, she had so much energy. I tried to get her to slow down, (no) tried to get her to do a trot (no), even asked her to lope (really no, that got us nearly bucked)… My gracious!
Luckily, Betsy wanted to show me how to get to her house so we separated from the group and after ten minutes, she was following Harvey with no problem. After that ride, I was pretty determined to fix that and in a hurry!
Part II – Clinton Anderson
Now, I’d been planning this since December. Of course I am disappointed that Marcia didn’t go and that I couldn’t give away the other tickets, but oh, well. My great friend, Beth came through with her trooperness and came with.
The hard bleachers were the worst part (my butt is still recovering!). The riding demos were the best part (I am now recommitted to doing reining and cow-horse someday) After seeing all the problem horses and issues people have, I am reaffirmed that Sky is a pretty good horse. However, she has a lot of finishing work to do to get her where I want her. I am taking away from the weekend to do more groundwork even when I don’t think it’s necessary, to train on the trail more, to work on refining the maneuverability of the different parts of her body, and to flex, flex, flex (which I have stupidly stopped doing)
Clinton Anderson has a ton of sayings, likes to talk, and does this annoying thing where he acts like he wants everyone to finish his sentence (all the time). However, I still like his methods. I love how he calls people tree huggers, is honest about what the horse is here to do for people, and is very black and white about what he does. I think he makes sense. He reminds me of Josh from NM but more talkative and full of himself. They both say basically that training is all pressure and release. That’s it. The horse does not share your emotions and does not think the way you do.
Anyway, it was good. Beth joined the No Worries Club and got a bunch of DVD’s. I hope she actually uses them to get control of her babies. She’s put so much into them to not succeed now. I showed amazing restraint and only got the $10 Training on the Trail book, which I hope will help me solve our little jigging problem! I’ll admit I wanted the stick and the halter/lead rope and lots of stuff, but I figure the method is more important than the stuff.
So, this week I’ll be getting ready to show at Oak Rise on Sunday. I’m not sure how to rein, considering we have a shank bit now, but still riding two handed. I’ll do a lesson with John this week, hopefully, to get ready.
Take care, Me.
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