Paradox Ride

So Friday afternoon I went out, caught Paradox, and went up to the jump arena for some groundwork as they were power-washing the smaller arena and none of the instructors were around yet.  Discovered that her groundwork is not so bad as I thought it was; mostly she just needs to learn to move off of lighter signals.  Right now I have to give really strong cues before she responds and I don't like that.  But it was better than I expected, and I was happy to see that her feet/legs were doing better than they had been on Wednesday.  So after a while of groundwork I brought her back down to the barn, put her in a stall, and let her chill out while I went to see Rhapsody. 

Rhapsody's session went quite well despite the fact that she jumped away like I'd slapped her the first time I went to scratch her shoulder.  But she came back fairly quickly and let me start scratching her neck and chest again by the time I had to leave.  We'll get there...I haven't moved the lead rope or halter off my shoulder yet as they're a bit bigger and more overwhelming than just the little rope, but I hope next week I'll be able to start moving them around while I'm rewarding her without freaking her out.

Then I went back down and waited for one of the other instructors to show up.  After a while she did, and I tacked up Paradox (Western, as my riding tights were still in the wash!) and headed down to the smaller arena.  I had her in the neck stretcher to see how she'd do and was pleasantly surprised.  Our goal with her is to begin to teach her to go long and low, and she was stretching down nicely at walk and trot intermittently, and doing decent transitions between the two gaits without flinging her head around or bucking (usually).  I did have a few moments of crow-hop-bucky-ness when she decided she wanted to be on the grass in the center of the arena and I told her no.  But nothing terrible.

I wanted to canter but by then there were some little kids coming in and I didn't feel comfortable cantering my crow-hopping pony on the inside track (she loves to dive in and lean in), or trusting them to stay out of my way.  So I tried a canter in the round pen, but no luck.  In the end I got off and lunged her at canter and she went with no bucking, but a dreadful leaning in.  Probably why she won't canter in there with me on her--she'd likely fall right over.  I see some walk/trot circle and bending practice in our future while we work on canter on the rail! 

The other thing we need to work on pronto is moving off my leg.  I basically can't steer her without using the reins majorly; she is absolutely clueless about responding to leg pressure.  We ended with a walk on the buckle in the round pen while I worked on getting her to respond a bit to weight/seat/leg cues.  We wandered around kind of like we were drunk, but she did eventually respond to my request to stop although I think part of it was because she wanted to eat! 

Well we will see how this goes.  I'm learning a great amount, if nothing else.  :)  

Another Horse...

Sometimes I think the last thing I need is another horse to be working.  Then I get my sanity back and get all excited again.  :) 

The Coach said at our lesson on Monday (which was a challenge by the way, but went overall well), that she wanted me to come and have sort of an "intro" ride for another of the ex-racehorses that needs the next step up in her training.  So today I went over and after discovering that one of my friends took me up on my recommendation and is riding with the Coach also (yay!), I went and got Paradox, an Arabian about six years old.  She is nice on the ground overall; although she really could use some basic groundwork to learn to move off pressure--I can hardly back her up at all--she isn't spooky, ties well, and seems quite sensible.  Also she is a pretty good trail horse and quite calm.  The main thing we were working on, and are going to be working on, is her canter.  Tisn't pretty, and she likes to snake her neck around and act obnoxious whenever you ask her to do something she doesn't want to do.  The chiropractor and the vet have been out to see if she had any problems that way, and she's been adjusted.  Of course there's always the possibility of another physical problem but nobody can think what it might be.  And the fact that she only does it when she doesn't want to do something seems suspicious.

She was sore today so we didn't canter much.  Accidentally I made it worse when I pushed her a bit too hard in the round pen and she slipped pretty good.  Ugh I feel bad. :-/  But we did a bunch of walk-trot transitions on the grass, which let me see and deal with some of her issues at a slower pace, and Coach was able to show me the set-up she wants her ridden in at canter.  And I am now needing to ride her at least twice a week if at all possible, outside lessons, plus still working with Rhapsody, plus Rusty and Fringe and the Bay Boy and whoever else happens to be available, plus, most recently, working a friend's green horse over 12-18" jumps during our lessons.

School?  Who needs school? :)  Oh yeah, that's right, that's why I'm getting up at 4:30 a.m. to do the school stuff so I have afternoons free at the barn...okay, so you didn't need another indication of my insanity I guess...better go to bed now. :)