It was a bad day at the barn. First, I had to drive through nasty, snowy weather with bad roads and windshield wipers that were misbehaving.
The place was deserted, so I saddled up Cole. As I led him around, I marveled that it wasn’t windy. They predicted high winds. I would be able to get a great ride in. I mounted—and the winds started. It was really bad. Cole spooked only once, but I spooked dozens of times. we spent a lot of the time practicing standing. The main door was flapping nearly constantly. When we did trot, he did exceptional. He engaged his hindquarters more than ever! I am still trying to figure out how to ride this gait, but I am getting better. We kept our ride to half an hour.
I cleaned the stalls, hoping the wind would improve, and it did. My ride with Cruiser was much better. The door was only flapping about once a minute, and Cruiser didn’t care. I decided to try to ride the best I could. I have realized that I haven’t been riding up to par. I rode my best and he did improve. I realized he wasn’t bending—at all! This could be why I can’t get him on the bit. In the past, I when I lost him, I would just circle him with a strong bend, and he would go right back in place. We worked on bending at a walk, and he seemed a little better, but he is very resistant. Possibly physical? It won’t matter in a few weeks, but I will continue to work on it.
I fed—my assistant boyfriend was nowhere in sight. I had to get one more bale of hay from the loft. I am very afraid of ladders. I told myself I could do it, and I did, but even I was surprised how uneasy I was as I climbed up and down the ladder.
Then there was the trip home—and it required all my winter driving skills to get safely home. The roads were not only snow covered. But very slippery. I think there might have been some ice under the snow. i was sure glad to get home safely.
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5 comments:
Glad you made it home safely, the roads were horrid. I live near the part of I-76 that was shut down last night. I have a ladder phobia as well, normaly I have hubby pull down enough hay to last a while. Sun. I braved it for the first time & lived to tell the story. I was so darned proud of myself.
Oh, I can't believe there is another horse person out there with a ladder phobia! It can be a problem if you need to go up to the loft!
I can't believe how bad it was last night--and nary a plow in sight. And that wind!
I'm glad you were okay on the roads. At least the horses were good. :) That means it was a good night hehe, but I understand how stressful it must have been. I refuse to drive on slick, icy roads. I'm just not a confident enough of a driver. I'm wary of height and worry about slipping or falling backwards off of ladders. I don't think I would consider it a phobia (no where near like my phobia of spiders, vomiting, etc), I'm just very careful. I hope the weather is clearing up for you.
Yeah, I've been thinking about teaching Chrome to lunge and ground drive and have been wondering how I would get the treat to him without him moving toward me to get it or turning around and getting tangled up, etc. I think before I start ground driving I'm going to teach him a "stay". I don't really know how to go about it though so I'll have to do some research. I think most people teach it with a mat and then slowly make the mat smaller. We'll see what works for me. I'm glad clicking Cole after giving the treat is helping teach him to stand still. If you decide to teach stay let me know how it goes.
I think Zep has taken a huge step in trusting me. :) It's like now that I'm communicating in a way that he understands suddenly he realizes I'm not out to get him. I'll have to get some video of it sometime because he's so cute!
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