Wild-ish Ride

So on Friday I went and rode. :)  Just Rhapsody because I wanted to do catching groundwork with her as well as riding, and that takes longer. I was super pleased with her catch in the field! She comes right up to me now and isn't shy at all about barging right in with Surge and her big paint gelding boyfriend to get her treat. 

Then we had a great groundwork session.  Took off her halter and everything and did some catching work.  The first couple times I sent her away, she went off in a feisty Arab-y trot, head all arched up, snorting at everything, tail flagged--it was actually kind of cute, lol.  I let her go and after a while backed up to ask her to come in and she came right away and let me put the rope around her neck without any fuss!  She did that a couple times and then decided it wasn't worth it to leave!  I would send her and she'd go a couple yards off, spin around, and ask to come in.  Goosey.  :)  However I don't mind that at the moment.  I really would like to take the catch halter off--it's rubbing her face and making the rain rot on her poll 10 times worse--and I really think I could with no problems, but I'm going to wait till after the farrier comes next Friday.  She really, really needs her feet done--hasn't had them trimmed or even looked at since September or October at least--and I don't want to take any chances. Though I'm 95% sure I can catch her without a halter on, I'm not sure if Coach wants to yet!

I also did some Friendly game (desensitization) at liberty and some Porcupine (direct pressure) and Driving ("air" pressure) games on-line.  Next up is Yo-Yo (backing away and coming back in when asked) and then lungeing/Circling game.  She doesn't understand lungeing very well at all, and I really want to get her lungeing well so I can maybe get some of her jellybeans out before I get on to ride!

However I don't have that option yet, so tacked her up and went out to ride.  She was hot, hot, hot as she hadn't been ridden for a week and a half and the temperature was hovering around 34 degrees F (about 1 degree C).  So she spooked majorly once at the jump blocks--her big spooks consist of a big "teleport" jump sideways, a 180-degree spin, and an attempted bolt, all in about half a second--and she very nearly unseated me; however I somehow stayed on and we went on to trot a lot to wear off the jitters at a faster pace.  She spooks less when she's focused on moving forward.  So we trotted and trotted and trotted--mostly very fast, but now and again more relaxed with a little bit of stretching!--and then cantered a couple times both ways of the arena.  She was in full racing form and making me feel like a jockey with her out-of-the-gate style scooty canter transitions and breakneck speed!  Lol!  It was fun though.  Kept me on my toes making sure she stayed forward and wasn't going to spook at anything in canter. :)

So a bit of a wild ride, but it was fun.  Rhapsody really should get ridden 4-5 times a week at least, to keep her calmer and more relaxed.  Sigh.  If only we could...not even most of the lesson horses get ridden that much.  If I was within bike distance, I'd go over more often, but with a 15-20 minute drive both ways, I can't afford the gas. 

Pictures coming soon!