The Placebo Effect

Oh my god- could it be spring is finally arrived? After another stint of cold weather and an ice storm things seem to be warming up. It even stayed above zero the past two nights! I have ridden Carmen twice now in the new browband.

The first time she was relaxed and forward and having fun. I joked that it was the new browband working it's mojo.

Because of course it couldn't be all that work I've been putting into our partnership.

That would be a silly idea.

the magical browband of peace and tranquility.
Note how it matches the saddle pad- what is happening to me?

Yesterday it was supposed to rain heavily all day but be warm (FYI warm by Nova Scotia April standards is over 10 Celsius). But it looked like it was trying to clear so Cynthia decided to risk it and come for a ride. Before she came the sun came out and it was beautiful. Just as we were getting the horses ready it began to rain. So we groomed the horses and then brought Irish out to wash his back legs. With his incontinence problem he gets a build up a gunk on his legs. With the winter I couldn't wash them as often as I liked.  Once he was all clean the rain had stopped so we threw on their tack and headed up to the ring.

Carmen was still miffed about being left in the barn while Irish left and anything could have happened to her but did I care? Obviously I did not.  (note to self- Goal this year is to get Carmen used to being left alone in the barn). However, during our groundwork she was pretty settled so I hopped on after a short time.

She started all tense and looky. You must be getting bored with hearing that- I'm getting bored writing it. I'm just ignoring it in the sense that I'm not going to worry with her. Instead I focus on the getting her forward and asking her to stretch. It's hard to give her rein to stretch into when there's a very solid possibility that she will spin and run away so that's a work in progress. But I didn't just stay on the middle circle but got us working all over the ring right away.

To be honest we had some very nice work- when she's listening it's so easy. But listening is really really hard when you're Carmen. At one point we were walking up by troll corner and she was convinced there was something in the grass. I believed her I just didn't think it was a danger. Irish came cantering by and as he left she bolted after him.

HEADS UP I called and for a second I thought that we were going to run up his butt.  I got her stopped  pretty quickly and then realized that for the first time I hadn't had that moment of panic when she bolts (of course she hasn't in a while)- I just rode it out, got her back and we repeated the circle up at that end.

Our transitions have been much better lately- very little drama and when there is, it's short lived. We picked up a canter and it was a bit wooly at first. We did a series of circles working our way up to troll corner.  The canter was pretty nice and then she decided that she must look to the right while going left and have her body bent as far away from that side of the ring as possible. I am suspecting that counter canter is not going to be an issue with this girl. I repeated the circle, this time making sure I had the outside rein but not over do the inside. And we had a lovely bendy canter circle with no drama at all.  I brought her back to a walk and we finished there.

Magical browbands aside, I am pleased with how things are going so far. There were times in the ride where she stretched over her back and reached for the contact. I'm trying to encourage that by riding better and NOT falling forward onto her forehand.

Hopefully the trend in Carmen and the weather continues because our first show is 4 weeks away.

Thank god for the magical browband of Peace and Tranquility.

show? What show? What do you mean 'show'?