 |
| Girls in the field, L-R Lass, Baby, Rhapsody, Dora |
Rhapsody doesn't like to leave the pasture because she's super herd-bound.
Lass is easy to catch.
I'm supposed to ride Lass walk/trot for 20 minutes to start getting her back into work again after her lameness bout.
Why not catch Rhapsody (provided I can catch Rhapsody), then catch Lass, and take both of them up together?
Marvelous brilliance of me!
Or...something...Halfway down the mares' field with two halters, I thought better of myself.
Rhapsody is spooky. Lass is spooky (much better than R., but still).
They're both mares. They aren't friends any more.
All the other mares will find this fascinating and follow us forever.
Neither leads really really well. Rhapsody charges forwards/sideways. Lass just stops and pretends she can't move further.
Bri, you're an idiot!
Nonetheless, being a real idiot, I decided to try it anyway. And what do you know but it only took me half an hour to catch Rhapsody! And only one little trot chase; the rest of it was all walk and while she wasn't happy to have me halter her, she did let me do it. Woo hoo!! Our trip up to the barn was not too terribly eventful; I only have one rope-burned hand from where both girls suddenly spooked at the ever-evilly-present Invisible Monster while I was trying to fasten the gate behind us. And I got them both tucked away safely in their stalls without any serious injury to any party.
Now Coach did call as I was halfway to the barn (leading both horses, I might add). "You're at the barn?"
Say I: "Yeah..."
"Well I'm not going to be there this afternoon."
Me: "Ohhh.........."
"So just--just be careful."
Me: "Right. Yes. Absolutely. YES."
I was very happy to see another couple boarders show up toward the end of my groundwork session with Rhapsody. I'm not scared of either horse, and perfectly comfortable with Lass, but being all alone at the barn, with only Coach (who is a long ways away) and my family (whose car I have) knowing where I'm at...well it does inspire me to be careful. Ha!
Started working with Rhapsody on moving off "air pressure" (Driving game, for any Parelli people), in addition to desensitizing, bending, and direct pressure; and she did beautifully. Pressure is a bit stressful for her so I do just a little and then rub her for a while, rinse and repeat. She was much calmer today and I am beginning to teach her to halter/remove halter with her nose bent round toward me so she can't take off quite so frightfully. It seemed to help as I was letting her out.
Also Lass was going about 98.9% sound even on the footing. Happiness. Won't be long before we're jumping her again! :)
My Paso was a bugger this summer when it came to catching him.
ReplyDeleteI could get close (sometimes), but the moment I tried to halter him -- he was off like a rocket.
Eventually I only got one shot at it.
The moment he saw the halter, he was off. I couldn't even get close enough to put a rope on him.
Solution?
I use a neck collar (an old belt with a solid ring on it) which he wears all the time. Easy to grab hold of and clip a rope to and lead to the gate with.
That's where I put the halter on. Job done.
Ehhh so frustrating isn't it?! Your boy sounds worse than Rhapsody! I can't really put a collar or regular halter on her because I'm paranoid of it getting caught on something (she's on 24/7 turnout in a huge pasture), otherwise I definitely would have already.
Delete