4/24/11

Yesterday and today we had great rides! It's been windy but she does just fine in the wind. There was some distraction yesterday while we were riding in the arena, and it was really good for her. She spooked twice and got over it.

Her canter transitions are getting So So much better! She picked up the left lead from the trot as soon as I asked and "clucked" just perfectly towards the end of our session. Such a good girl and no spooking or fussiness. I have to use a LOT of leg and urge her on when we go left, she wants to drop into a trot. Think we'll do some lunging next week at the canter to the left to help build her muscle better on that side. She started dipping again today mostly going to the right. That is my bad, I noticed my own position from the pictures today, and when I felt her doing that, I tried shifting my weight hard and we got better at it.. kept doing 20m circles at the canter. She's really holding herself and staying better balanced now though.

We also practiced dis-engaging the hindquarters, half-turns on the forehand, and turning on the haunches. We haven't done much turning on the haunches work so we started some of that today and she did decently. Got irritated with me at first because she didn't know what I wanted, but she figured it out pretty quickly. So proud of my big girl... She'll be 4 here soon! AAAH!

I Came off Gertasaurus Rex

It finally happened. She's had my number and finally called it today, LOL.

For the record, she's been doing GREAT the last few rides. I've ridden her more than I usually do this week, and she has done great every single ride. Little fuss here and there (which is expected, she's still a baby), but we've been working on canter transitions. She will still try to run into the canter and I'm doing my darndest to not let her. If she starts, we halt and do halt-trot-halt-walk-halt-trot type transitions and then I ask for a canter again. She's starting to pick up the left lead a lot better now too. I was contributing to her not doing so, I realized I had too much weight to the left and didn't shift my weight properly so it was keeping her from picking up the left lead. She only cantered on the wrong lead once :) So proud of her! And that was after our little fiasco :p

So here is the run down of what happened:

We have some HUGE trees that have been needed to be planted. My BO and his buddies had the tractors out (one that was pretty darn big that G hadn't ever seen or been around before. She's used to the ones we have at the barn and she is usually fine with them. I ride her IN the arena WHILE it's being drug...we follow my BO around behind his tractor and G is perfectly fine) digging holes and placing the trees in. This is along the road side near our large arena. The biggest tractor was facing away from the road and towards the arena. It was on and running, just not revved. We walked up to it, the guy knew I was there and I nodded to him that it was okay. I, stupidly, took my attention off G for a split second to adjust myself, grab my crop, and the guy revved the engine (which I was fine with)... and G did NOT like that. She side-stepped to the left, spun on her haunches and LAUNCHED herself.. ZOOM! Totally caught me off guard, lost my balance, my butt was out of the saddle but I tried my darndest to pull her up and to try and get myself back in the saddle.. and then I realized I was too off-balanced and was going to come off. My left foot was already out of the stirrup so I took my right one out and when she LAUNCHED I used to that push myself off her, get out the way of her legs, and I landed on my right shoulder/side. Thankfully, our arena is surprisingly soft to land on :D I will absolutely be sore (already feeling it in my arms and right side) tonight and tomorrow!

My BO ran over and he thought I got tangled under her legs, lol. But I was perfectly fine. A few scratches maybe on my right shoulder. It was easy to laugh off because I had it coming :p At least we got it out of the way now and I'm okay!

She was easy to catch, dusted myself off, and got back on. She was still being silly, and even more so now that her adrenaline was going. She required a very firm hand, but I worked her butt as if nothing happened. The tractor was still going (it makes a different sound when digging than what she was used to hearing) and I made her go past it numerous times and she eventually settled down. We did some great canter work and more trotting nicely. She kept dancing all over but her attention was more on me than the tractor. Once she'd done what I wanted and asked without a fuss, we ended it there. Took her gear off and let her run, chased her a bit in the big arena while the tractor was going. Then she got a good scrubby bath, grooming, some grazing...then her afternoon Noms.

Some pictures from today. Unfortunately no one had a camera around while this happened. It was pretty epic and I would have LOVED to have seen it played back, ahahhaha!!

Bratasaurus Rex--RAWR!

I'm becoming a fail-blog because I keep forgetting to update this thing. It seems easier when I have pictures to include, but today is going to be one that has no pictures. Sorry!

We've been working really hard at our bending again and getting her to yield to the left and pushing her HQs over to the right when turning and yielding right. She's getting it down so much better and our turns/circles are MUCH smoother! I am so proud and happy of the brat!

A few days ago she was putting up quite the fuss on the outside of the smaller jumping arena.. crowhopping, bucking, rearing.. all because something was going to jump out of this little bush at eat her. Worked at it and finally got past it. She's SUUUCH a Diva sometimes, goodness gracious!

The walk-canter transitions have been rough, but she's getting it. Now that our trotting has gotten a lot smoother and consistent, I figured it was a good idea to work on walk-canter, halt-canter, and trot-canter transitions. She still does the running/fast trot into the canter and I'm working on stopping that. As soon as she starts going faster, I halt her. Then ask her to go into a nice comfortable trot, and then canter, if she speeds up, we do the same OR I push her harder into a canter ..go a few strides then back to trot then ask again but harder for a canter. She did much much better today and we did a few laps in each direction around the large arena. She didn't turn hard/drop shoulder in the turns either this time. She's becoming more balanced at the canter now with me on her.. yay! Yesterday we did the same thing and she was putting her nose to the ground (and would cough a few times--I thought we were over the Upper Resp I thought she had? Ugh but its going around again) while cantering, I about went over her head a few times.. naughty. She didn't do that at all today though, so yay! Progress!

Oops!

So I have forgotten to update the blog, sorry! I've had two other rides besides today that have been pretty great! I haven't had to use the hackamore on G in the those last few rides. She hardly pulls at the bit anymore. Yay!

I haven't even worked her very long the last few rides because she has done just awesome. She puts up her tantrums at first but then focuses really well on work. I am SO proud of her! Today she picked up her trot to canter transition SO much better than the last few rides. She's still a dipper/sharp turner so we'll work on that eventually, but my biggest thing with her is getting her to yield to the left. She does great to the right but over-bends her neck and I have to really use a lot of leg to push her HQs over. Gettin' there, though!

Haha, I even raised my stirrups up a hole. It seemed to make a huge difference for me and I feel like I rode her a lot better today doing that. She was just fabulous, such a good girl today we only rode for about 20-30 min then walked around the property to cool down.

It's been nasty windy so I'm not riding as much. She does just fine in the wind, I just hate getting crap in my eyes, lol. Even with sunglasses on, it doesn't do a whole lot.

Hopefully it's not too bad tomorrow or Sunday. I'd like to ride one of the two days, so we'll see. I wish I lived closer sometimes.

These aren't from today, but from a few days ago.. Enjoy

3/27/11

Yay!! No crow-hops today. I'm hoping she is finally getting over the spring time sillies. She was paying a lot more attention to me, but still had a little bit of ADD going on when she saw other horses. We worked on bending to the right. I'm going to have to figure out what I am doing wrong..whether it's my hands, legs/feet, weight...or everything, because she is just so stiff and it's frustrating when she stiffly turns. I know all horses have a harder side and that's it for her. It'd make sense since I am right handed and horses are usually think opposite and with how her and I are alike, it would only make sense for her to be left handed/sided. The oddest thing about that is my left leg is stronger than my right, when a few years ago it was the opposite. 

We had a few little disagreements yesterday but not a whole lot. I'm also trying to get her to work off of the rail. She's too used to going and being on it so we mostly only fought about that. She did better as our training session wore on though. She's not fighting, playing, grabbing at, or going through the bit anymore. She still plays with it but I don't mind that as much as I did the grabbing and pulling, then running through it. I did have a dentist check her out, not time to float her yet and no notice of wolf teeth coming in so it's not a pain thing. Unless they're just starting to come in and it's at the "sore" stage where it hurts. I remember that all too well as a kid so I can relate, poor thing. She would go BTV quite a bit, but using a lot of leg to push her forward again usually popped her out. 

All-in-All, I am super happy with how well she went yesterday. I didn't have to put her in the hackamore. Seems she learned her lesson with that, LOL. Hopefully I am not speaking too soon..

Video: