Whoops! Ha ha... Holly, Holly, Holly... WHAT is God trying to teach you during this season? PATIENCE!! Oh, is that so??? So... why do you think that doing two lunge sessions in 1 day... twice now.. is a good idea?!? I'm sorry God... please don't remind me that I need to learn patience more. Please!!!
In my defense... I didn't mean to today. I had signed up for the Jessica Bortner-Harris clinic a few months ago. Originally I had signed up for 4 rides... two flats and two jumps. One with Lyric and one with Dan. And then.... Dan. And then... Lyric was not cooperating with my trailer loading timeline. So I managed to get two of my rides covered and was able to only have to sign up and pay for 1. And then I begged Jessica to come to me instead of me having to haul Lyric and undo all our hard work.... and she said she would "weather pending", which is totally fair.
So... this morning, the weather was not looking good but it hadn't started to rain yet, so... I spread the manure and got the stalls picked and ready for them staying in if needed. And then it still wasn't raining, so... I grabbed Dan and we went to the round pen. We did our pillar walk. That boy is wicked smart. He's got pillar 3 down pat now! Maybe too efficiently but.. I can't not reward him! So then I went to lunge. He's feeling cheeky! We played tug of war a bit, but then he settled and we got some really nice trot work. He was forward, down and out.... soft... bouncing back. Yay! Good boy. He was even drooling again. And when I pushed him out, he squared up all four legs and was more straight. Yay!
I decided at that point that I wanted to watch my friends so Lyric would have to wait. Plus it was started to rain a little bit. So then I went to the clinic and it was sooooo educational. Very much worth freezing my hiney off. She basically talks about how our crookedness blocks the horses. And she is very much a proponent of classical dressage and forward/down/out with the neck. And keeping the horse straight. And she uses Dr. Kate too, so bonus! Anyways... at one point she mentioned long lining, so... I had an idea! I asked her if I could bring Dan and do a long lining session if the weather was too icky for her to come to me. She said that would be fine, so... that's what I did.
Poor Dan. He was pretty dirty... since I wasn't prepared! But we loaded up and got him in his surcingle and bridle in the pouring rain. He was a very good boy though. She started him and we put the long line from the bit, through the upper side ring, and then to my hand on one side (for the outside rein) and then on the inside, she put the clip on the surcingle, ran it through the bit, and then to the hand. (for the inside rein). She started him off and he almost immediately curled behind the bit and then stuck his tongue out. NO!!! Noooooooooo!!! I was panicking and trying to figure out what to do and pretty quickly she stopped and asked me about it. I told her that I had thought it was associated with pain or stress. So she thought for a second and then pulled the inside rein off and just clipped it straight to the bit. And he pretty quickly settled and kept his tongue inside. (Until I took over, but then it went away pretty quick). She got him going and was laughing at him. He gives you one good circle but then he's done. ha ha. Every time. I also reminded her that he hasn't done much work. :) But he was good. She got him going forward down and out. Basically I use the outside rein to help keep him straight, keep him from curling, and ... use it like an outside rein. Light pressure, half halts... etc. The inside rein keeps him from throwing his head to the outside and helps straighten him. She did a little walk and trot and then let me take over.
And like I said.. his tongue immediately came out. UGH. But then pretty quickly he settled and it didn't come out again. He was even drooling a bit. I'm definitely not as coordinated as her, but I was able to get him going forward and reaching down and finally managed to coordinate my aids. And he only did one good circle at a time for me too. Ha ha! We didn't do much. Mostly at the walk. Partly because I was not coordinated enough and partly because I forgot my lunging whip so I had to use my dressage whip and partly because.. he's rehabbing. He's not fit, he's not ready, and it's probably even harder to do it straight! But he was a very good boy. Jessica explained how that would help his shoulder and neck muscles build up. Cool!!!
So then we headed back home. He saw the guinea's and grew to about 18 hands and watched them for a minute. But he wasn't scared... just... alert and curious. I think he would enjoy Guinea bowling, but not so sure Priscilla would appreciate us terrorizing her birds! We got home and it was really starting to come down and the winds were BLOWING!! He wore his back on track sheet home because his chicken blanket was so wet. So.. they may have to stay inside tonight. Sadly no photos as everyone left when I got him in the arena and it was so wet and cold my fingers weren't working well enough and I was paying attention. Oh well.
Overall though... it was sooooooo nice to be doing horsey things again. Especially horsey things with Dan!!! Although I do hope that the weather cooperates tomorrow for me to get a lesson on Lyric because I think it will be so helpful! I'm hoping Jennifer will get her back out too a few more times as I think it would help me so much! If not maybe I will have to try to coordinate a clinic and do the work. :)
I think Dan was happy to be back in action too!
No comments:
Post a Comment