Brandi Ride

Well it is official that Brandi is now the greenest horse I've ever ridden.  ;)  If Fringe was green, then Rhapsody is very green, and Brandi is pretty much barely started.  Haha! 

She'd been so good last time I rode, so I caught her on Friday, did some groundwork, and then went and rode.  For the first little bit, we did walk both directions and she was great.  But when I asked for the trot, she started bobbing her head and throwing it around.  So not wanting to get tossed, I hopped off, put her on the lunge, and trotted her up on that.  No lameness, a little nervous but she went both ways fine.  Got back on and the same problem.  Finally I got her to trot tracking right (always the racehorses' better direction) but tracking left she was still throwing fits.  Coach helped me out a bit once she came down but it still wasn't easy.  And there were lessons going on and little kids riding so it just wasn't a good place to school a baby.  Eventually I decided to just get off and walk her out and try again another day when things were quieter.

I'm not really frustrated with her, though; I think she just doesn't understand.  Coach agrees with me, so I think we are pretty close to right then.  ;)  Didn't help that the arena was busy--unusual for a Friday afternoon--and every time we saw a horse going the opposite direction, Brandi pretty much put on a what in the WORLD is THAT?!?! face and stopped dead.  Lol.  Last time I rode her with nobody else in the arena, but this time there was always someone with us.  She's not used to that, and Friday showed me that she's not really solid on her cues for the different gaits, either.  That's okay, but I'll just have to be more careful to enable her to be successful.  Next time I'm going to ride her when it's quiet and just school walk/halt transitions until she's solid there before I ask her for trot.  She freezes when she's nervous or doesn't understand, so I'll just have to be very clear and patient with her.  We'll get there soon; she's very smart, curious, and playful, so it won't take long.  Overall I still really like her. :)

On other news, I went down to give Rhapsody an apple and a scratch, and she came up to me!  Also when I grabbed her catch halter she didn't jump like she did last time.  I think I'm going to start acting as if I'm catching her without a halter when I go get her, so as hopefully to get her used to it.  In addition to our catching groundwork, of course.