After throwing a pity party for myself over Monday's ride, I tried to be less obnoxious and come up with a plan to deal with Her Royal Brattiness for yesterday's ride. The plan included lunging, ground work, riding and possibly adding reins to a rope halter for extra brakes that (hopefully) wouldn't make her rear and waiting to have supervision to go out and do anything actually demanding.
I arrived at the barn last night, took care of some things for vet day today (including ruining Foxie's night with a strangles vaccine) and then pulled Bailey out. I made her stand instead of cross tying her, and was quick to discipline her when she tried to wander off or do anything but stand politely. I casually considered doing all of the things I had planned, shoved her snaffle back on her jumping bridle and said "screw it" and hopped on in jump tack; someone had a few jumps brought out to the outdoor, so I figured we could stick with those and play it safe until I could ride with a friend who could scrape me off the ground. Bailey... well Bailey had her foot to the floor on the gas pedal yesterday and couldn't walk or trot for more than a few steps before offering to pop up into canter. I let her do a few speedy laps at that canter, and tried to get in some walking and trotting that wasn't totally uncivilized. Bailey, however, had no patience for that shit and was only happy when I was pointing her at jumps, which she promptly charged.
She warmed up decently, and I tried to get her into the mindset of halting, and asking for that halt with my body vs grabbing her face (I am trying to not ride her like an asshole, be on to others as you would have them be on to you style). There was a small vertical to oxer line set up and after blasting through it a few times, I tried the old "halt and back up mid line" exercise that I've done in the past with Foxie. At first, we wiggled hard and Bailey, who thought backing up was the worst also offered a little rear when I asked her to keep backing after more than a few steps. I tapped her with my whip, got another little threatening rear, and backed her up again. And again. And right out of the line until she was yielding and backing without arguing. Then she got to jump her oxer, and halt again. We did this a few times until she was anticipating the halt; it took a try to get the timing right, but I was able to "halt" with my body to the quarter step before she planted her feet and then allowed her to go on, which felt like a lovely, lovely half halt.
Because the jumps in the arena were nothing but speed bumps to miss high flying B, I took her out on to XC. I made her walk in the mud, past a goose to do it. She also got "followed" by a large tree branch that got caught in her tail, which shockingly didn't cause a total mental meltdown. I pointed her at a few small fences - a line of little logs out of the dry water complex, then a little white rolltop, then a small raised log. None of these required any of the effort she gave them, and that effort definitely didn't deserve the amount of freight train cantering that came afterwards, but besides some very odd almost-rooting when asked to halt and feeling tense and locked through her body to the left... she wasn't horrible. There is a hole in the bridge to the other side of the XC, so we went via the track to the other side, which involves walking through the intensely muddy and wet ditch next to the track to get back to the more raised area of XC. Bailey, who was a total stink about standing water in the grass last time we were out there, finally shuffled through with a minimum of uncomfortable leaping and was rewarded with some jumps. She was still disgustingly forward, but really took me to the fences (which felt really good) and wasn't so looky I was truly worried I was going to die. Half coffin? No problem. Up and down banks, small and medium? No problem. Logs? No problem. Another, slightly larger roll top? No questions asked. I trooped her back through the mud (maybe she could be a field hunter after all) and back to the other side of XC. We did a small line of fences to finish, just twice to see if I could get her to stop blasting out of the not-filled water complex and make a better turn to head back over the BN picnic table. The first time was a whole lot of turning-and-hoping-it-would-happen feels, but the second time was a bit more in control. Roll top to logs into the (not) water and then around to the table, which still is a big solid thing, even though I know I was jumping the novice + coops and picnic table last year.
We finished our evening with a long trot around the track (going back to the farm the "long way") and I let her canter and sprint a bit before making her walk home. When we finally got back to the parking lot of our barn, Bailey noticeably drooped like she finally realized she was tired. I'm hoping that knocked some of her over abundance of energy down, and maybe once I feel a bit more in control I can start pointing her at the bigger fences. Only one more month of having a full XC course in my barn's back yard before we move! I am, however, welcome to come school whenever I like (for a fee, obviously, but that's totally fine) but there's something about being able to school two days a week if I want to be that I will miss. It will be a while before hubby can build me some XC, so I feel like a bit of focus on the solid fences now isn't a bad thing. Plus having a horse who pulls me to the fences is a really, really nice feeling... though also feeling like we can stop would be nice, too.
Oh, and that stupid splint? It's still cold, and relatively small. I might get the stuff to paint on it, but in the mean time, we're rocking splint boots like I'm responsible or something.
I arrived at the barn last night, took care of some things for vet day today (including ruining Foxie's night with a strangles vaccine) and then pulled Bailey out. I made her stand instead of cross tying her, and was quick to discipline her when she tried to wander off or do anything but stand politely. I casually considered doing all of the things I had planned, shoved her snaffle back on her jumping bridle and said "screw it" and hopped on in jump tack; someone had a few jumps brought out to the outdoor, so I figured we could stick with those and play it safe until I could ride with a friend who could scrape me off the ground. Bailey... well Bailey had her foot to the floor on the gas pedal yesterday and couldn't walk or trot for more than a few steps before offering to pop up into canter. I let her do a few speedy laps at that canter, and tried to get in some walking and trotting that wasn't totally uncivilized. Bailey, however, had no patience for that shit and was only happy when I was pointing her at jumps, which she promptly charged.
She warmed up decently, and I tried to get her into the mindset of halting, and asking for that halt with my body vs grabbing her face (I am trying to not ride her like an asshole, be on to others as you would have them be on to you style). There was a small vertical to oxer line set up and after blasting through it a few times, I tried the old "halt and back up mid line" exercise that I've done in the past with Foxie. At first, we wiggled hard and Bailey, who thought backing up was the worst also offered a little rear when I asked her to keep backing after more than a few steps. I tapped her with my whip, got another little threatening rear, and backed her up again. And again. And right out of the line until she was yielding and backing without arguing. Then she got to jump her oxer, and halt again. We did this a few times until she was anticipating the halt; it took a try to get the timing right, but I was able to "halt" with my body to the quarter step before she planted her feet and then allowed her to go on, which felt like a lovely, lovely half halt.
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| Me? Charge fences? Nevar. |
Because the jumps in the arena were nothing but speed bumps to miss high flying B, I took her out on to XC. I made her walk in the mud, past a goose to do it. She also got "followed" by a large tree branch that got caught in her tail, which shockingly didn't cause a total mental meltdown. I pointed her at a few small fences - a line of little logs out of the dry water complex, then a little white rolltop, then a small raised log. None of these required any of the effort she gave them, and that effort definitely didn't deserve the amount of freight train cantering that came afterwards, but besides some very odd almost-rooting when asked to halt and feeling tense and locked through her body to the left... she wasn't horrible. There is a hole in the bridge to the other side of the XC, so we went via the track to the other side, which involves walking through the intensely muddy and wet ditch next to the track to get back to the more raised area of XC. Bailey, who was a total stink about standing water in the grass last time we were out there, finally shuffled through with a minimum of uncomfortable leaping and was rewarded with some jumps. She was still disgustingly forward, but really took me to the fences (which felt really good) and wasn't so looky I was truly worried I was going to die. Half coffin? No problem. Up and down banks, small and medium? No problem. Logs? No problem. Another, slightly larger roll top? No questions asked. I trooped her back through the mud (maybe she could be a field hunter after all) and back to the other side of XC. We did a small line of fences to finish, just twice to see if I could get her to stop blasting out of the not-filled water complex and make a better turn to head back over the BN picnic table. The first time was a whole lot of turning-and-hoping-it-would-happen feels, but the second time was a bit more in control. Roll top to logs into the (not) water and then around to the table, which still is a big solid thing, even though I know I was jumping the novice + coops and picnic table last year.
We finished our evening with a long trot around the track (going back to the farm the "long way") and I let her canter and sprint a bit before making her walk home. When we finally got back to the parking lot of our barn, Bailey noticeably drooped like she finally realized she was tired. I'm hoping that knocked some of her over abundance of energy down, and maybe once I feel a bit more in control I can start pointing her at the bigger fences. Only one more month of having a full XC course in my barn's back yard before we move! I am, however, welcome to come school whenever I like (for a fee, obviously, but that's totally fine) but there's something about being able to school two days a week if I want to be that I will miss. It will be a while before hubby can build me some XC, so I feel like a bit of focus on the solid fences now isn't a bad thing. Plus having a horse who pulls me to the fences is a really, really nice feeling... though also feeling like we can stop would be nice, too.
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| I RAN SO FAST GUYZ |
Oh, and that stupid splint? It's still cold, and relatively small. I might get the stuff to paint on it, but in the mean time, we're rocking splint boots like I'm responsible or something.
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| See it? Right front. |
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