As we've been generally immersed in some miserable, cold weather, I have only worked the horses once since we rang in the new year. This cold weather is really taking it's toll on morale and on the horse's ability to remember that they're broke and not feral. Last weekend, we had a really nice warm up, so of course I got all dressed up and got Arya tacked up to ride. We lunged first, and this is where the adventures began; she (probably not mindfully) faked me out into thinking she was tired from all of the running the girls had done the way before. She trotted around pretty sedately, did her ground work obediently enough. She seemed disinclined to canter, and now that I think about it, it might have been due to the rough ground under the snow, or because I was using the shorter line vs a lunge line.
I got on her, and she immediately was disinclined to walk, or be steered, or listen. She threw her body around a bit, and I realized that I had made a mistake... and decided that since I was on, I might as well get this shit over with.
And by "this shit" I anticipated a good amount of leaping, bolting, throwing of shoulders, losses of steering and sucking back from the contact so she can do crazy things. She did all of the above, and threw in a lovely full diagonal of my 60x200 ring at a full bolt, while bucking. I wish I had video, because in that process, I think she pulled like 99% of the muscles in my body, yet somehow I STAYED ON, GUYS. I ran her into the fence and got her stopped - because, like the psychopath she is, she was aiming towards the broken part of the fence where there are still open drainage trenches like she was going to nope the F out of the arena again. And then promptly break her leg because there are super deep, unfilled ditches out there, idiot!
She didn't really seem to get tired, but we fought and fought and finally I got her to settle down enough to walk, trot and canter without trying to actively murder me, so we called it a day. She is so athletic and talented; before she settled, she was showing off her ability to sit and turn and stay relatively balanced even on a tiny circle and also was doing a very impressive, if obnoxious, tiny collected canter that hardly moved forward at all. She needs to learn to go forward, for sure,
I was a bit smarter for horse #2 (or just realizing that I wasn't physically capable of another ride of that... drama) and lunged BB before I got on her, but she proved to be the easier of the two, as per always. She pinged around on the line, and was well behaved under saddle, if just generally and noticeably out of shape.
I got Arya to burn off a bit of energy on the lunge again on Tuesday, but I am trying to decide if I am brave enough to take her over to the indoor ring this weekend. It's a bit scary to take a young horse on their first off property excursion alone; I've always had someone (usually a big heavy man to hold my wild animal) with me. I might not even plan to ride, the first time, just to do ground work and acclimate her to the ring.
Since so many of you have young or green horses, what are your tips for safely taking your young horse on their first field trip? Do you lower your expectations, or keep plans fluid based on how they act?
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| LOL my mom is an idiot |
And by "this shit" I anticipated a good amount of leaping, bolting, throwing of shoulders, losses of steering and sucking back from the contact so she can do crazy things. She did all of the above, and threw in a lovely full diagonal of my 60x200 ring at a full bolt, while bucking. I wish I had video, because in that process, I think she pulled like 99% of the muscles in my body, yet somehow I STAYED ON, GUYS. I ran her into the fence and got her stopped - because, like the psychopath she is, she was aiming towards the broken part of the fence where there are still open drainage trenches like she was going to nope the F out of the arena again. And then promptly break her leg because there are super deep, unfilled ditches out there, idiot!
She didn't really seem to get tired, but we fought and fought and finally I got her to settle down enough to walk, trot and canter without trying to actively murder me, so we called it a day. She is so athletic and talented; before she settled, she was showing off her ability to sit and turn and stay relatively balanced even on a tiny circle and also was doing a very impressive, if obnoxious, tiny collected canter that hardly moved forward at all. She needs to learn to go forward, for sure,
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| She was gross and sweaty and super itchy. |
I was a bit smarter for horse #2 (or just realizing that I wasn't physically capable of another ride of that... drama) and lunged BB before I got on her, but she proved to be the easier of the two, as per always. She pinged around on the line, and was well behaved under saddle, if just generally and noticeably out of shape.
I got Arya to burn off a bit of energy on the lunge again on Tuesday, but I am trying to decide if I am brave enough to take her over to the indoor ring this weekend. It's a bit scary to take a young horse on their first off property excursion alone; I've always had someone (usually a big heavy man to hold my wild animal) with me. I might not even plan to ride, the first time, just to do ground work and acclimate her to the ring.
Since so many of you have young or green horses, what are your tips for safely taking your young horse on their first field trip? Do you lower your expectations, or keep plans fluid based on how they act?
since you asked, my tip for safely taking a young horse on its first field trip is: don't do it if you think you need a big heavy man to hold the horse. work *consistently* at home until that's not an issue. pulling it out every few weeks for what sounds like a pretty terrible riding experience isn't great prep for taking that experience on the road, bc in my experience the stress of travel can often lead the very green horse to lapse in its training rather than magically improve. ymmv.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it doesn’t feel like the worlds best idea to start things off this way, but I feel like I have to choose between hauling to safe footing or letting her continue to sit, and so far inactivity is driving me (and I think, her) nuts. You make very good points, though!
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