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the sun will come out tomorrow....
Mar. 26th, 2007 08:36 amSo Sunday was the complete opposite of Saturday. It was sunny, bright, and warm- a totally gorgeous spring day. Trudi was an absolute star, and all's right with the world. I switched the bit to my absolute mildest one - a fat loosering hollowmouth snaffle (the other one was a fairly mild double jointed eggbutt- but a little thinner and heavier than the loose ring). I also put her halter on over the bridle and worked on having her walk off with one hand on the leadrope and the other on her hip and she was completely calm and happy. She still faces me when she stops, but at least she was much quieter on the send off and there was no way for her to get caught in the mouth.
I shortened up the side reins a couple of holes and free lunged her. It makes my heart lift to watch her- she's not the most stunning horse I've ever seen, but her movement is so much nicer than anything I've ever had before. She was more relaxed than yesterday and very obedient- she even reversed on command. She didn't reach for the contact or stretch, but she also didn't object or fuss, so I'm willing to wait for her to figure it out as she relaxes more and I can get her coming more through.
I asked Denise to help me for a few minutes and climbed on- we walked with Denise leading and Trudi's balance seemed better- the routine went: walk, turn, stop, dispense carrot. She wasn't at all spooky and was only interested in the carrots. We finished up with her walking off and stopping on my cues, and I made a big deal out of letting her know how awesome she was.
I did a lot of thinking on Saturday night, about why Trudi had been so disobedient. I asked myself whether I thought she was defying me or whether she was simply upset and confused. I read some Podhajsky and some Klimke and thought some more, and came to the conclusion that since she is generally obedient and moves away when I ask her to, that she was probably just confused. She tends to overreact, and when she is nervous everything just stops making sense. Hmmm....relaxation. So I decided to try and keep things more low key and relaxed, and it worked really well yesterday. It's going to take time for me to get used to such a sensitive horse.
I shortened up the side reins a couple of holes and free lunged her. It makes my heart lift to watch her- she's not the most stunning horse I've ever seen, but her movement is so much nicer than anything I've ever had before. She was more relaxed than yesterday and very obedient- she even reversed on command. She didn't reach for the contact or stretch, but she also didn't object or fuss, so I'm willing to wait for her to figure it out as she relaxes more and I can get her coming more through.
I asked Denise to help me for a few minutes and climbed on- we walked with Denise leading and Trudi's balance seemed better- the routine went: walk, turn, stop, dispense carrot. She wasn't at all spooky and was only interested in the carrots. We finished up with her walking off and stopping on my cues, and I made a big deal out of letting her know how awesome she was.
I did a lot of thinking on Saturday night, about why Trudi had been so disobedient. I asked myself whether I thought she was defying me or whether she was simply upset and confused. I read some Podhajsky and some Klimke and thought some more, and came to the conclusion that since she is generally obedient and moves away when I ask her to, that she was probably just confused. She tends to overreact, and when she is nervous everything just stops making sense. Hmmm....relaxation. So I decided to try and keep things more low key and relaxed, and it worked really well yesterday. It's going to take time for me to get used to such a sensitive horse.
