A Successful Session

He was bucking and rearing but there was no anger in it! Ok so I think most people would think that was awful but really I was just so happy with what I got.

There has been so much going on here that playing with the horses almost never happens and forget about riding, cant do that until I can get them back in shape, talking mentally not physically. But I have been making myself do at least something with them everyday other than feeding, cleaning the stalls and saying hello on my way out the barn. Most days I just brush them maybe do a little ground work and just hang out with them.

For me, for my sanity, I need to be riding so now I need to make the time. Yesterday I decided I was going to work some with Dylan and if all went well I was going to hop on him. I just got my new bitless bridle and cant wait to try it out. Well it turned out instead I did some work on line with all three, here is how it went.

I worked first with Joe, learning parelli has been a life saver for me, honestly it has but I have decided that with Joe I am not going to change how I ask him to circle or back from me. That old saying if its not broke....and honestly he dose what I ask when I ask and its never been an issue . Plus when I try and change things with this horse he goes to that bad place I am just not going to do that to him. I will however inject as much of parelli training as I can as much as he is comfortable with. So in doing the circling game I got three times around without having to ask, without nagging and I got it in both directions. I got some snorting but he never really relaxed and normally I would work with him until he did but his back is sore and he is off on his front left so instead of asking a whole lot more I worked on his back when he had enough I gave him treats and put him away.

Next came Dylan, I really do have to work with his manners some getting him to back off of me. Its a security thing with him, a respect thing. When we take them for a hand walk he and Joe together he is so worried that Joe is two steps in front of him instead of one that he does not know I am even there. Not acceptable !! so we worked on that and did some lunging, I just want him to listen to me instead of what is going on around him. Really was a good day for it as the alpacas across the way were having a party and the minis playing in the other direction were grabbing his attention. By the end of the session he was listening to me doing what I asked so we stopped. At this point I almost got on him but no one was around so decided I had better not.

Well it might have been safer to ride Dylan than to work with Quincy, but it turned out ok. In fact as bad as it got it was great, let me explain. I did a few things on line he is getting better and better but he is still Quincy, LOL . I asked him to circle and I am still struggling with how I ask him. I keep “blocking” him with my actions and sometimes its not till its done that I realize what I am doing. So when I asked him I needed to encourage him to turn and go and this time I asked him to “walk on” saying it out loud because he knows the words and I asked him to turn at the same time by pointing the stick at his nose!!! Now for me that’s a biggy, I always forget to just ask the nose, I don’t need to ask at the neck or shoulder, turn the nose the rest will follow. It was awesome and I think because of that the next part went so well. He broke into a canter and at first I was going to stop him because I know where this could lead but for some reason I just let him go. He stayed at the canter never rushed, never bucked, never got angry, never tried to come in, he did three circles and I stopped him. Was so awesome. Well now the other direction......I guess at this point he was done.....he went off on me, reared up when I asked him to back, took off at a canter, a really ugly rushed one, came in and when I asked him to get out he bucked and got tangled in the rope did that all four feet off the ground thing but I just let the rope flow out of my hands I just let him go on because he did not have that “look” he gets his eyes were still soft. Amazing! Got him stopped and asked again, it was a repeat performance but again there was no real anger him. I know I had to keep going until I got what I was asking. Finally I got almost a complete circle, a nice steady quiet circle, I could tell he was going to that bad place so I just stopped it he turned liked his lips and we were done.

How weird it must be for someone to listen to this story and wonder how I can be so happy with that performance but really truly he never got so angry that he wanted to kill, he simply did not want to work and figured he would let me know, its what he does. I need to get a round pen up I need to find a parelli instructor or at least someone who knows more than me and I need to work this horse more. I have no dilutions that I will ever ride him again but I will have a trained horse on the ground and I will have my old horse back again!!