Fun Times!

I definitely did not intend to wait this long to post again! But, a ton has happened including... a new job! Hurray!  And with the new job comes a pay raise, double hurray!! I'm so excited! Not only is my job LITERALLY across the street from the barn, but I'm making more and will be getting regular raises which means, with fingers crossed, I should be making enough within the next two years to buy Gwen!! So that is my goal: save and work hard, and be able to purchase my pretty mare by summer of 2014. It's a lofty goal, but I have faith!

Speaking of Gwen... I did get down to the barn two Friday's ago, with the boyfriend and a camera. Of course, as soon as you put the horse, and the person (me) in front of a camera, we promptly forget everything we ever knew about anything. Our circling was terrible, our backing was terrible, our yo-yo was terrible, our touch-it was non existent... seriously, it was sad. I was embarrassed, and very very humbled.  It was bad enough that I've decided not to post the footage. Not out of vanity, but because I feel like it's a really poor example of what we're capable of. When the camera is not involved, we're so much better.

I know all of our "problems" that day were due to me. I don't consider myself camera shy, but there were a number of factors going on that day that were "new". It was the first time my boyfriend was watching us, and it was the first time we were being video-taped. I wasn't nervous, but I guess I felt a little pressure to show-off how good we are. Gwen certainly reacted to it, though not in a performance-enhancing kind of way. It was a bummer, since I was kinda hoping to video my Level 1 audition... but obviously we need to work on keeping our cool under pressure. We called it quits very early on, and went back to grazing.

After that terrible Friday session, I came home and thought a lot about what went "wrong", and also how to work on Gwen's attitude toward being ridden. I decided that I was probably asking a bit much of her all at once, and that breaking down the steps might help. So I really broke it down. On Monday, after grooming, I looped the lead over her neck and hoped on bareback, and then just sat there while she got to graze on the patch of grass by the turn-out. And that's all we did. I sat, she grazed. It was great. When my butt finally couldn't take any more (she's kinda bony...) I slid off, brushed her down again, and then turned her out.

Tuesday was a rinse-and-repeat kind of day. More sitting and grazing, and that's it. I didn't even touch the lead-rope. It was there purely for safety reasons. It's kinda fun to sit on her while she grazes. She gets to eat and doze, and I get to practice balancing myself on a horse once again. I haven't ridden seriously for almost ten years, and my body has changed so much since then (gained a little weight, balance has shifted, not fun). It was harder than I expected for me to just sit/move with her while she grazed, and keep relaxed and not tense up. especially when she shifts her weight to one extreme side. 

Sitting and Grazing!

Wednesday I did it again, lots of grazing and sitting, and balancing. I introduced some very minimal requests (such as moving away from the fence, or moving out of the bushes) but nothing too demanding.  Then I was gone Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday due to personal and work obligations.

So today was my first day back at the barn. I decided we'd riding in the arena today. I looped her lead around like I normally do, and then we walked over to the arena. We weren't the only ones riding, but it wasn't overly crowded. I spent a good five/ten minutes working with her on the ground first. We did some flexing, a little "standing and doing nothing" with the friendly game, played a little touch-it. And we did all this while I was wearing my helmet, and she had the lead knotted around her neck like I usually do when I ride. Everything was feeling really good, especially after our long hiatus from playing any games, that I decided to give riding a whirl. I hopped up on her, spent some time standing and flexing, and then asked her to move off at a walk and follow the rail. If we had been alone in the arena, I wouldn't have cared about direction, but as it was I had to make sure we stayed out of the way of the kids having their lesson.

We weren't perfect, but we did SO MUCH BETTER than every other time I have ridden!  I got direction changes without much complaint/argument. Only once or twice did I really have to be persistent about where we were going, otherwise she followed my suggestion very nicely. I tried to stay as relaxed and loose as I had been those earlier times (the sit-and-graze days), and made it a point not to ask her to do anything with my leg, since she seems to dislike it. I found that if I ask for a turn/direction change with both reins (as opposed to just direct-reining) she does a lot better. I am by no means an accomplished rider, but I think we did pretty well today! I'm very optimistic, and would like to continue riding her a little bit each day.

Happy horse after riding! Yummy grass

J