Monday, Oct 22nd, I saw Gwen briefly after a half-day of work. We had the whole place to ourselves (it was awesome!) and did lots of fun on-line games. Ran thru everything I need to do for our Level 1 online audition, which I hope to shoot soon (not this Sunday, but the Sunday following, fingers crossed!). We even tried going over the barrels! She never got to actually jumping them, but I got nose, neck, and a little feet action (she pawed at it mildly). After the first four attempts, I decided to back it down a notch, and pulled them apart to ask for a 'squeeze' thru them instead of over. I was mildly surprised when she showed hesitation. She's never had a problem with the Squeeze game before (and even loads in trailers with no worry at all). It took two passes for me to realize she wasn't worried about going between the barrels, she was worried about putting her feet between the poles on either side (that were used to keep the barrels from rolling away). Hm! How interesting! As soon as I adjusted, and moved the poles away, she had no problem with this game.
All in all, it was a very pleasant day with some great games, and wonderful attitude (from horse and human alike, I should say!) which made me veeeerry happy because... the rest of last week, I was on vacation! It was a much needed break from work, but unfortunately meant I had to take a break from Gwen, too, as I went out of town.
This past Monday was my first day playing with her since our awesome Oct 22nd play day. With daylight fading fast, and work consuming all the good hours (I would totally work a night if I was allowed, just so I could spend the sunny part of the day with Gwen!), I didn't have much time with her. But I took a chance, and decided to try riding. Of course I did my pre-flight checks on the ground first, with some driving/porcupine games, circle game at trot both ways, and making sure she was feeling connected with me (if not entirely confident; Gwen is not very confident with a saddle). She was giving me good signs though, so I went ahead and mounted up.
We kept it slow and easy, doing nothing but walking along the rail. I used the time to practice using seat and weight to drive and steer rather than reins and legs. We did pretty good for our "first" go. I was curious how she felt about it, though, so was looking forward to how she'd behave when I came to get her yesterday, Tuesday.
Well, I shouldn't have feared, because Gwen started walking up to meet me from half the paddock away! She hasn't done /that/ for a while, so I was absolutely thrilled. I had even less daylight yesterday, so I had to save grazing for after, and saddled her right away. Pre-flight checks... looked pretty good, got on... things went well yesterday too! She was even "lighter" than Monday, moving when I shifted my weight, and was feather-light on the lead rope. She's never very comfortable or happy when riding, but I think she's beginning to realize that me-in-saddle is just like me-on-ground and that I'm not going to kick her, or yank on her, etc. She's really started listening to more subtle cues, which is fantastic! We even did a little trotting (read as: we did two strides of trotting, and then went back to walking). Since I pushed her more than usual, I was a little concerned about our relationship. Well, she proved that I was doing all-right, because when I went to turn her out, she did not want to leave me. She followed me all over the turn-out pen, until I said good night and ducked back under the fence. :)
Gwen is never more RBI than when she's saddled/being ridden. Pre-flight checks are a MUST for her. There's a video on the Parelli Connect sight where Linda is narrating as Pat works with an RBI for the first time, and she talks about how RBI's tend to really shut down and look sleepy, but really that is when they are most dangerous because they are just bottling everything... and if you don't stop and back off they can explode. Well, the only time I see this in Gwen is when she's saddled. She stands in the ring with half-lidded (but not blinking) eyes, and acts like she can't hear or see anything around her. Then we start playing friendly game, porcupine and circling, and she sort of "comes back" to herself; she begins having an expression, she shows interest in the world around her and in me, and gives me two eyes and two ears. Then I know we're ready to mount up.
Today was the best day we've had under saddle. Started out as normal, with our pre-flight checks, circling game both ways (she even offered a trot /herself/ when we went counter-clockwise.) was a little less confident going the other direction, but connected enough for me to feel safe getting on. This time, after we went around the ring on the rail a few times (following the rail has been our focus the past two days) I started asking for some trot. She gets very uptight with trot, and usually gives me two or three really choppy strides, and then slams into a halt (at which point I go pitching forward onto her neck... I am SOO out of shape/practice). We started out with the typical, choppy trot but instead of slamming to a halt, she sort of... slams to a walk, if that makes sense. So we've made progress! I made the game very simple... walk three-quarters of the ring, and then trot along one rail. No matter what direction we went, we always trotted as we were going toward the turn-out ring (this was a very calculated decision on my part ;) ) We had some "drifting" issues, and more often then not we were kinda trotting down the center of the arena than along the rail, BUT we got lots of trotting in! I made sure to always ask her to walk before she did, so that I was making the request rather than her. I got some nice big sighs from her, and a bit of licking/chewing. Definitely progress! And... completely by accident, we did some sideways under saddle! Woo! I wasn't even trying for it (honestly I was trying to turn her around...) but she gave me some very nice side-ways steps. Silly Gwen, now I know you know how to do it!
All in all, I am very pleased with myself, and cannot wait to continue riding her tomororw. :)
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| Getting all fuzzy for the winter! |
J
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