Random Riding October 6, 2007
Posted by kimayars Arena Work (Horse)
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Ah… Today was a slow day. I like slow days. No rushing. Just doing. It works for me. It started with me feeding the horses at 6am. Even they weren’t rushed. Just nice and slow. I came home and crawled back into bed. We had no where to go this morning, so snuggling was definitely in order.
Jeff and I slept in until 10am. The down side of this is that our girls (4 and 6) helped themselves to breakfast. You can imagine what a 4 and 6 year-old would choose for breakfast: fruit snacks, Cheeze-Its, and goldfish crackers. I must say, that wasn’t as bad as it could be.
About 10:30 I headed to the barn, did the barn work for the day and then Shrene and I did a little barn maintenence together.
Next came the fun part: I got to ride my horse. I haven’t been able to ride regularly due to a few reasons:
1) The weather has absolutely been miserable and motivation to ride in the rain is very low. Rasyn has been soaked, and cleaning up a wet horse to ride takes a lot of time, which relates to reason #2.
2) Lots of little things have been popping up that have cut into my ride time. Specifically I have made several trips to Veronica’s school due to head injuries. She has been learning “penny drops” at recess and has had a few mishaps. Luckily, none have been serious, but it still requires the parent to be notified and if possible, come and examine the child (especially when there have been two within a week of each other).
So, you can imagine that I had a wonderful time on my horse today. He wasn’t nearly the butt he was on Monday, and we made a lot of progress on things. He gets REALLY uncomfortable when you don’t follow a pattern or do something predictable, so we spent the entire time being unpredictable — randomly changing directions, doing a circle somewhere else besides at the end of the arena, doing zig-zags, changing directions, and just being wiggly. The catch is, he has to stay on the aids. He’s not allowed to make decisions on where we go. I will handle all that. He just needs to listen.
In the beginning he was REALLY tense. He was hollow, quick, and rushing. Rather than back off like I usually do, I put him to work. Small circles are great — they are easy to do and the horse has to work to make it happen. It’s an easy way to get their attention. Let’s just say we did a looooot of small circles.
But then he got it. He came on the aids, and was a very good boy. We went everywhere we could, and he didn’t miss a beat. We still have some hollowing when we change direction from left to right (which is a symptom of his weaker left hind) but that will get better with time and conditioning. We took a short walk break, and then worked a little on leg-yielding on a circle before we called it a day. I was very happy.
I did think of Hobbes briefly today. The last thing I did before I left was throw each of the horses a flake of hay for lunch. Ray was in his own pasture, but Shazam and Zandee were sharing a larger pasture. I fed Ray first, and then brought two flakes for Shazam and Zandee. As I’m walking into the pasture with the hay, Zandee slams his shoulder into me and makes a dive for the hay. That is SO not okay. I ended up yelling at him and whacking him on the shoulder to get him to back off. Then Shazam came up behind and snaked in for some hay. He got the same treatment. Instantly I had two horses cantering (rather quickly) around me in a tight circle, almost like sharks circling before the kill. Then I chuckled as I imagined Hobbes in the same situation. Let’s just say I don’t think he’d be chuckling.
Anyway, I survived and Shazam and Zandee got a lesson in lunch-time manners.
Tomorrow is Beth’s and my long run (7 miles). It’s supposed to rain, but we’re going to do it outside anyway. I hope I will survive. I’m honestly not so sure. Oh wait, I guess I’ve done it once already… Hmmm, I don’t remember that going so well.
Workout:
- Type: Other
- Date: 10/06/2007
- Time: 01:30:00
- Total Time: 00:35:00.00
Comments
Dear Madam,
Regarding your slanderous accusation that Shazam, a chestnut Arabian, required a “lesson in lunch-time manners,” and your consequent administration of physical punishment: you will shortly be contacted by his attorney-at-law, who, ironically, is often compared to a shark, circling before the kill.
Respectfully,
Sherene
Agent for the (wrongfully) accused
You must go back to bed after feeding the horses. I don’t know how you do it. Once I’m up, I’m up!
I hope you get good weather today for your run!