Give Zoe her 5-way...check!
Worm Zoe...check!
Zoe's feet trimmed...check!
First ride this year on Zoe...check!
I think we are ready for the trainer! Just need to wait until the first of the month before bringing her!
By the way, did you catch that the first ride was completed? She did a lot of bucking once the saddle was on and I made her move out - I wish she would stop that. Doesn't reassure me that I will be able to ride without round penning her first.
Ok, let me start over...I pulled her away from her buddies - very upsetting for her. I round penned her (about 20 minutes) until she was working/listening to me consistently. I put the saddle pad on, her eyes were bugging out of her head. I took the saddle pad off, she shied away. Great...it's like dealing with a yearling who's never experienced being saddled before. I decided I wouldn't take any part of the saddling process for granted and to treat her like she's never been saddled. Pad on, pad off. Pad on, pad off. Repeated that several times until she was relaxed and bored with it. Next was the saddle. I repeated the same procedure with the saddle that I did with the pad. Saddle on, saddle off. Once the saddle was on and she was bored, I jostled it around, flapped the stirrups around, basically made it move and make sounds as much as possible. She didn't care. I tightened the cinch - again didn't care. Then we did some round pen work. She got to bucking several times but eventually settled down. As soon as she started bucking, I would make her move out. I don't want her to think that it's allowed to buck when the saddle is on, whether I'm in the saddle or not. I want to be able to ride without round penning first to "get the buck" out of her. I'm sure people out there will disagree with that...but I don't care. My horse, my training methods.
Anyways, I decided to put the bridle on and then round pen her one more time but this time she went around like 2 times each direction and I figured we were ready for riding. I mounted, dismounted. Mounted, dismounted until she was bored again and then just sat in the saddle. At first she was very alert then bored. Her boredom turned into "alright, let's do something already" so I asked for a walk. She complied willingly but she felt like a ticking time bomb. We worked on steering, stopping, backing, moving off leg pressure and all the while I couldn't shake the feeling of riding a ball of energy just waiting to explode!
Needless to say, we only did walking exercises. Her steering needs some major improvement before we start trotting. We have to have the basics down at the walk before going faster. Plus I want her to relax and realize that me riding isn't so bad. She was on edge the entire ride. My hubby commented that she looked scared and that's exactly how she felt under saddle. I know she really picks up on the emotion of her rider but I honestly can say I wasn't scared or nervous so it makes me wonder WTF did her previous owners do to her? Or maybe it's what they didn't do??? There have been other instances here and there that I've thought that too. I know how she acts when she's never experienced things before (curious, lots of blowing through her nose but mostly curiosity) and then there's when she's panicked about something - like she's deathly afraid of what I'm going to do to her or what an object is going to do - her whole body shakes, her eyes are rolling and her head is as high up as she can get it. Poor thing! So many skeletons in her closet...
So back to the riding. I think I rode her for 30 minutes. We got to a good place and called it a night. I think we were both relieved it was done. It's like she was so defensive when I was riding... She let out a huge sigh and then started chewing once I had her bridle off and halter back on. Untacking was a breeze and I returned her to her friends. I was curious how she would act when it was time to come back in so about an hour later I went to catch her. The only thing different was this time I had to walk about halfway to get her, normally she runs to the gate when she sees me coming. No biggie.
Well, tonight we will go at it again. I hope tonight's ride will be more relaxing for her!
Until next time!
Quote for the day:
"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."
-Alan Watts
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