Thursday 7 April 2011

Goals, and What Has Been Going On

So I forgot to recap Feb goals and set some March ones... whoops!

Oh well - Feb goals and how we went:
1.Continue to build up fitness and muscle slowly. Hopefully get back on by the end of the month.
Success! We rode HEAPS before we moved, maybe schooled once, but we went out on trails quite a few times. Since moving, we havn't been off property, but that will soon change.

2.Teach her to lower her head, for bridling especially.
Kinda success. She is easier to bridle most of the time. I haven't actually done a proper schooling session on this, she has just kinda gotten better with it.

3.School her to have manners when being trimmed. She was a monster last time!
She is much easier to trim now. She just needs patience and for it to be fairly quiet (i.e. no motorbikes!). She is much more polite about picking up her feet now too, most of the time. She conveniently forgets sometimes!

4.Borrow a float and have a floating lesson or two if possible. I want both of them self loading!
Well, we did do a schooling session, and then we floated them here, on separate occasions. Allie is good to load, goes straight on but is not yet self loading. Gracie still requires a lot of work.

5.Have a lesson myself on a school horse.
Fail. I haven't had a lesson yet.

April goals:

1. Get them on the float and take them somewhere... anywhere!
2. Continue with the canter under saddle. Get that sticky right lead!
3. Have their teeth floated and have them microshipped (vet is booked for Monday, so this is a cheating goal).

Three goals will do. :)


Ok, I have been schooling Allie quite a bit lately because we are on a busy road and I'm just getting her used to traffic before we take them out. On our last trail ride before we moved, she developed a nasty rearing habit! We went on a 45 minute ride and she reared 7 times at least! Unbelievable. I think it was her being bratty, and me being way too strong with my seat and other aids to get her to move on. But then just to confuse me she put in a couple of rears for no apparent reason whatsoever! Bratty mare. Since then I have been fine tuning my aids to be just strong enough to get her to move past her hissy fit without offending her enough to rear. It works. I feel her get sticky, then I am just... there. You know? Not a big 'GET-UP-SHITHEAD' push, which is what the lazy geldings I have ridden have required and put up with from me. She hasn't reared for about the last 4 or 5 rides, and she seemed to forget that was her new thing for those rides except the last one, where she was moody. There were no rears though, but a few skips because she thinks she can't do a slight curve while going down a slight incline. She gets it in her head that she can't do something, and then decides that a push is just me being too rude! Lol.

We have been cantering too. She is sticky with her right lead, only picking it up 2 out of 5 times on average. She is getting better. It's hard when she lost all that muscling. I'll take some pics on Monday when the vet comes to show you how much muscling she has lost, but she looks so much healthier now. Dark shiny coat, bright eyes. She is tucked up a lot of the time though. Thoughts and tips on this would be great!




Anyway, that's us at the moment. :)

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