dancing horses

dancing horses

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Welcome Back

I was able to take Monday afternoon off from work. Cynthia's daughter, Ashley came out to ride Irish.  I could tell right away that Carmen was more of like her normal self. We had a nice ride. Not that she wasn't spooky in some areas but it wasn't anything to worry about.

I had left the poles up and I am really enjoying playing with them. I like how they give us something to think about. I'm learning to not try to micromanage her over the poles and let her figure it out on her own. She really was starting to figure out that sometimes she needed to contract or extend her stride length. I think she quite enjoyed the cantering over them. Or maybe that was me. Hard to tell but fun was had.

As we were riding, Ashley's friend, Julia showed up. She had brought a helmet and hung it on the jump standard outside of the ring. Carmen took one look at it and decided that it had materialized and was clearly up to no good and most likely dangerous.  She spooked into the middle of the ring and I dissolved into a puddle of giggles.
Julia looked at me and smiled.
Me: Oh Carmen. You are something else. 
Carmen:  I saved us. I do it all the time and you have no appreciation of it. 
Julia:  She looks so proud of herself
Me: Yup. Wanna buy a horse? Three dollars and she's yours. 
Carmen:  humph. 

We carried on riding and she was very good. Nice and forward, although I would have loved to be have her neck a little longer. At first she was trying to figure out why there was this person standing in the ring but not giving instructions.  She was clearly puzzled. After a bit I stopped and asked Julia if she wanted to hop on. Turns out that she did. I did my usual disclaimer which is that I can't promise that she won't fall off.

Ashley was riding Irish and he was feeling quite perky and happy to be out. Ashley had him going really well. I think that they both needed each other.

Carmen and Julia did very well together. I gave instructions. I had to be careful- every time I stopped walking Carmen would stop too. That was fair- it was all based on our groundwork and her responding to my body language. I enjoyed watching Carmen go. I can see a real change in how she was going.




Watching her go I felt a sense of pride - she has lovely movement naturally and I have had a lot of help but in the end I'm the one in the saddle and it feels good to see results. 

19 comments:

  1. Mine spooked at a cow patty....sigh...

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  2. Every once in a while it’s nice to have someone else ride so we can see how they look . Carmen looks great...but she already knew that.

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  3. This reminds me of one story I never told. My friend was taking lessons on Gabbrielle in my round pen, and her instructor brought his brother along (because my friend is beautiful and boys will be boys). The brother was gawking at my friend, not really paying attention to what he was doing, and he draped his arms over a railing and began squeezing an empty plastic water bottle again and again, making this crackling noise that was scaring the hell out of the horse. I saw what was going on and was about to go over and offer to throw his trash away for him, but my friend seemed to be handling Gabbrielle's antics pretty well, so I let it go. After the lesson, she came to me and said that was the scariest hour of her life.

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  4. I find it strange to see someone else riding my horses. It doesn't happen often, but it is so good to see them go!

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    1. It doesn’t happen often for me but it does give some useful insights

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  5. aw that's such a good feeling to see your horse be successful and fun with another rider! charlie has never really been the kind of horse that anybody else is just itching to ride lol, maybe one day?

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    1. It is nice. It gives me hope that if I was not around she would be okay.

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  6. Annie has been spooky lately - time off and all that.

    Carmen looks lovely - it's always fun to see someone else ride them :)

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  7. I love seeing my horses go well for other people :)

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  8. I'd have had 3 bucks out of my pocket so fast your head would've spun! ;-)

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    1. Lol. I suspect that Julia and Ashley didn’t believe me. 😉

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  9. Winter brings out the goofiness. Silly girl. Yes, she is going good and yes, you are the one who did this and brought the two of you to this point. Blood, sweat and tears. Or, at least, hard work and lots of determination.

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