Riding.

My relationship with Gwen has hit a snag. Or, rather, I've found a snag in our relationship. On the ground, we're doing fantastic! Way ahead of where I thought we'd be, after only two months (Has it really only been two months!? Wow.)  I can tell by the way she reacts and responds to me when we're in the turn-out. When I walk up to her, she stops eating, gives me an eye and an ear, and pays attention to where I go. When I start to walk off, she happily follows after me without any pressure on my part. I simply have to start walking and she follows. This is beyond amazing to me, and the fact that it has now happened consecutively, means that I know it wasn't a fluke.

We're doing amazing on-line. She's attentive, happy, and willing to do what I ask. I rarely have to go beyond phase two, and we're fine-tuning our phase one. She'll walk and trot in the circle game, going off voice-commands alone, and we're working on canter with amazing results (she's been fussy about canter in the past, but this is not something I'm concerned about as she's making gigantic leaps forward each time we play, and I'm confident that what I'm doing is helping her be confident at all three gaits). She Yo-yo's like a champ, is yielding her forehand reliably (if a bit touchy on her right side still) and will touch just about everything I lead her up to, including the dreaded bridge (which I actually got her to walk over today, yay!). 

We've been doing SO well, in fact, that Monday and today (didn't have time to be at the barn yesterday) I decided to take it a step further and start riding again. Nothing fancy, just looped the lead around her neck and hopped on bareback. Monday, all I did was lead her to the mounting block, hop up on her off-side, and then we just stood there. Literally just stood at the mounting block and did absolutely nothing (well, lots and lots of friendly game while on her, but that's it). When I was ready to hop off, I asked her to move a few steps away from the block and then dismounted, and we ended on that.

Today, after a on-line, I got on her again. This time, I did not use the mounting block, but instead mounted off of the bridge. This was a non issue, though I think I surprised her, as I've never mounted her without the block. As soon as I was on her back, it's like I had a completely different horse. I'm so bummed out.

She gets defensive, locks up, super tense, makes really grumpy faces (that persist after I've dismounted until I've "rubbed" them away), doesn't want to move. I've touched on this in the past, when remarking about her behavior when I'm on her back, so this was nothing new. Previously when I've ridden her, she's displayed annoyance at my legs. What I mean is, when I ask her to move off of leg pressure, she tends to tense, and swing her head around to "bop" my leg with her nose.

Knowing this, I decided to adopt an approach that involved absolutely no leg pressure whatsoever. Since she goes off voice commands so well on the ground, I just wanted to use those. Since we were the only ones in the arena, I just left the "reins" loose across her shoulders. She got to pick direction, etc. I just wanted to dictate speed. We did a bit of walking, but when I asked for trot (using voice, and a bit of encouraging clucking) I got the same reaction I used to get with leg pressure; grumpy face, head swinging back toward my legs. This completely stumped me, as I was making sure I didn't put ANY pressure on her with my legs. We eventually got a few steps of trot, but she was so tense and jerky it was uncomfortable, and she was so clearly miserable that I didn't try to move her when she slowed down/stopped.

Instead of trying again, we just stayed parked where she'd stopped, and I did lots of rubbing on her, and talking to her, and finally just dismounted. Her grumpy face stayed until I rubbed on her head a bit, and she "came back to herself" for lack of a better explanation, and became the happy Gwen I'm familiar with. I did not want to end there. I was pretty determined to make some progress with "riding", if just to get her comfortable and happy-faced (or, not grumpy faced at least) with me mounting. So, we played a lot of friendly game with her by the mounting block, and then I did a lot of "leaning over" and rubbing on her side, then swinging my leg over, sitting for half a beat, and then dismounting off the other side. She seemed relaxed enough through it all, and didn't try to move away from the block while I was getting up/mounting, but I don't know if this is "progress" or not.

Basically, I'm stuck. I don't know where to go from here as far as riding is concerned. I'm more than willing to work on this for months/years if I have to, but I just want to know that what I'm doing IS going to help her, and isn't just making things worse. It's as if she doesn't realize that the person that's on her back, is the same person that's on the ground with her. Seriously, it felt like after I dismounted and played on the ground, she went from grumpy to "Oh, it's you! OK, let's play" and she was happy again. Right now, I'm pretty discouraged, and don't even want to ride, because I'm not sure if it's helpful.

This is definitely a plea for help/advice, so if you're reading this, I highly, highly encourage comments and advice. I'm pretty confident that it's something I'm doing. My boyfriend has agreed to go to the barn with me on Friday, just so that he can video me working with Gwen on the ground, and on her back, so I can see what's going on. I will definitely try to post that video, and will be seeking advice/comments/thoughts on it.

Keep in mind that I do not actually own the level 1/2 DVD's yet, and have only see the level 1 stuff that's posted on the Parelli Connect page. Purchasing the level 1/2 is something I very much want to do, and I wonder if it will help out with what I'm experiencing as far as riding Gwen. Is this simply a case of needing to work more on-line? Do I just need to do a LOT of "sitting around doing nothing" on her back? Any advice is welcome.

Thanks for reading,

J

p.s this is not a sleepy face. This is her post-Grumpy, coming back to Happy face. I get an ear, but she's clearly not happy. :(