dancing horses

dancing horses

Sunday, December 3, 2017

She Tasks Me

(props if you know the inspiration for the blog title- I welcome my fellow nerds)

Saturday was the last day of deer hunting season (with a rifle, muzzle loaders and bows are still allowed for one more week).  I know I'm going to sound like I am anti-hunting but I'm actually not. My grandfather was a hunter his whole life. When he was a boy hunting often made the difference between eating or not. I like to say that I'm not anti-hunting- I'm anti-idiots-hunting.

We have no hunting signs up on our property but I am still very careful. I walk the dogs in orange vests and make lots of noise when we're in our woods.

I know that is a long intro into the horse part of the post. Sorry. The point is that often during our rides the horses can hear people in the woods. Carmen is not a fan of this (for that matter neither is Irish).  I know that it's legit to be worried about the noises in the woods. I also know that for horses there almost always is a legit reason to be spooky.

I am working on recognizing that there is something but not being okay with her being distracted and not listening.  And that is not easy. I find myself sometimes thinking 'it's okay that she didn't bend through there, at least she didn't bolt'.

Nope. Not anymore. I am not accepting her to slightly do what I'm asking.

Stay with me. I'm going to tie this together.

With Saturday being the last day of hunting season there was a lot of activity in the woods around us. We even heard a couple shots that seemed close but probably were not.  So when I brought Carmen up to the ring I figured she might be a bit tense to start. I left Irish out in the front field which may have been a mistake. Anyway, when I mounted Carmen flatly refused to go past B/E towards the bottom part of the ring (close to the woods). And by refusing I mean spinning and bolting and generally throwing a fit.

I recognized this state- essentially there is no horse brain to reach- it's all adrenaline and self-preservation. Irish was running around his field as well which didn't help. Although she's not normally reactive to him.


like this
After trying to ride through it I hopped off and had to bring her back to the barn to get the lunging equipment. We headed back to the ring and I spent a long time on the ground getting her to tune in and listen.  We spent a lot of time in the part of the ring close to the woods. Finally I felt confident to get back on and ride her. 
Which I did and it wasn't bad. It wasn't great either. There were moments. She took exception to the lunging equipment on the ground by the gate although she was there when I put it there and went by it at least a dozen times before suddenly losing it: 
Carmen: WTF is that? OMG. 
Me:  Oh FFS, it's been there every time we've gone by. EVERY.TIME.
So I spent some time working on that. Finally I reached a point where I felt we had done some work and I hopped off. 
Which brings me to today. I wondered if some of Carmen's issues was related to her wanted to be by Irish. So today I brought Irish into his stall to eliminate that part. I brought the lunging gear up to the ring. I thought that having to dismount yesterday and head back to the barn was a bit of reward for Carmen as well. 
I also set up some poles for us to play with: 
I have to say I really like this configuration of poles. It gave me so many options to play with them.  I stayed focussed on what I was asking of her and keeping my seat relaxed. I wasn't always successful but I managed to fix it each time. Even once when we were cantering wildly and I just pulled my legs off so my set went into the saddle. That made such a difference. 

It was interesting to work with Carmen over the poles.  We started just walking the outside both ways, then a serpentine. After multiple trips she began to melt down between B and P. I wasn't buying it but couldn't get her to not jig. So instead I put her in a trot 10 m circle at P and made her work. I then asked her to walk and by then she was happy to oblige. 

The poles gave her just enough to think about but not enough to give her reason to pitch a fit. I liked having them to guide my figures. It also kept me focussed in the ring and not on all the things that Carmen could spook at.  I played with leg yielding, using the poles to guide me. 

Partway through the ride it began to lightly rain, but I refused to stop. In the past riding in the rain with Carmen was flirting with death. Now it just added a bit of spice to everything. Cause you know- we don't have nearly enough of that. 

We had some nice canter work over the poles - she actually does better then at the trot. I brought her to a walk to have a rest and she gave a dirty spook at R by suddenly spinning away. This usually unseats me enough. Now they just unbalance me. As I got my balance back I gave her a smack with the crop. 

Before you say 'now Teresa, you can't punish a horse for a spook', I don't believe that this was a true one. First of all we had been by there so many times by then. Carmen also has a history of spooking when she's tired and thinks we should be done. She took exception to the smack but we got ourselves back together and carried on. The spook didn't end the work, instead I picked up a trot and we went back to work practicing our trot lengthens. They felt pretty good across the diagonal. 

We finished with some much better work then the day before and I was happy for us to finish on some nice trot-halt transitions. 

SaveSave
I prefer indoor arenas- much less dangerous

26 comments:

  1. I applaud you for riding still. So miserable here and now ice of course makes it worse. I like riding over poles as well, gives me something to do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was glad I rode in the morning as the day wore on it became more wet and raw.

      Delete
  2. I can't help but laugh at Carmen's "voice" when she's reacting to stuff. :) :) Spirited mare!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I’m not anti hunting either just anti hunting idiots! Perfect! We have so many guns going off all day around the woods by the farm I think the horses are getting used to it. I say if you need that many shots you’re a lousy hunter and should head to the grocery store!

    Nice work with Carmen too. I love working with poles to keep them focused and I also think it keeps them from getting bored doing the same thing everyday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that we don't have enough shots going off but lots of activity which makes it worse. I am becoming a real fan of the poles.

      Delete
  4. I like your hunting distinction. Although Brett doesn't hunt, we have friends that do and I' m okay with that. It's the idiots that I take exception to -- especially the idiots shooting off their guns in the neighborhood.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't understand why people would do such a thing!

      Delete
  5. "Carmen: WTF is that? OMG.
    Me: Oh FFS, it's been there every time we've gone by. EVERY.TIME."

    Hahahahaha Been there, done that, said that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. i love that pole configuration too! so many options - and sometimes it's really really useful to have that tangible landmark to aim for when all else fails lol. also i giggled at the rain adding a little "spice," "as if there wasn't enough already" haha. oh Carmen...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love working with poles and how something so simple can add so much to a variety of exercises (and focus a horse or human). Right now, it is really helping me and Shiraz connect the dots between what my aids are trying to say and what horse stride needs to do. And yes Carmen I agree, indoor arenas are much less dangerous!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am having fun with the poles. And don't encourage Carmen on the indoor idea- we cannot efford one without winning the lottery!

      Delete
  8. Oh Carmen, haha. Sometimes the cooler temps affect them too. GOod for you for riding thru it and getting her brain back in a bit!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Every year some idiot kills a horse or a person so I think the hunting fear is legit. Spooking at lunging equipment less so. Eugene likes to spook at me if I am watching my husband ride. I am terrifying.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's so easy here for people to do stupid things. LOL Eugene- he's so awesome. :)

      Delete
  10. As a rider who no longer uses the S-word for the busy end of our arena, who is no longer allowing Ashke to redirect the conversation, I approve. The one thing that I can tell you is that he does the same thing: when he thinks the work is too hard or he should be done, then the silly buggers start up. I no longer fall into that trap. He gets tapped with a spur and a sharp pop on the outside rein, and I tell him to stop being the fool. It's working and each ride it gets better.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's gun season here so my entire ride outside on Sunday featured gunshots in the background... which led for uhm, some... unexepected bolting. But to be fair, we haven't ridden outside all that much and mare did have two days in a row off... #18isthenew3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't imagine riding with that many gunshots! Good for you.

      Delete
  12. They have good, bad, and mediocre days no matter what we do. I don’t second guess anyone on use of crops, etc. You’re the one there, and you know your horse. They reprimand each other all the time, and often I have no idea why they’re doing it, but they’re smart enough to figure it out. I had a hairy day with Bee yesterday on ground, and I fully expected her to buck me off when I got on, but she didn’t. If anything, it made for a better ride. We sometimes have to stand up for ourselves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right- there will always be good and bad days.

      Delete
  13. I'm also against idiots hunting and live in a similar kind of popular hunting area so I completely understand where you're coming from. This time of year is frustrating at best some days!

    Oohh I like that pole setup, too! Penciling it into my winter riding ideas.

    And I totally hear you on the "fake" spooking. I'm 90% positive Q does that as a way to get out of work. One of these days I'll invest in a HR monitor to actually gather data. I have a strong iggling feeling that true spooking rockets her HR up WAY more significantly than when she "spooks" usually. Work is hard, friends are better, let's be done! lol

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment. I love the feedback.