Bella is Bella--or is She?

Bella is Bella--or is She?

It’s been nearly a year since Shari started riding Bella with us on a regular basis.  Being an energetic National Show Horse, it was no surprise to see her spooking, dancing, prancing, trying to go at faster gait, etc.  We used to say, “That’s just Bella being Bella.”

Through the summer, we saw her calming down.  The more we rode together, the better she got.  Shari used clicker training, and that helped immensely.  Clicker changes the conversation--or in Bella’s case--brought her into the conversation.  In the beginning, she just reacted to the environment.  With clicker, Shari got her attention, and they were able to have the conversations.  

Instead of Bella saying, “I’m going.  I’m spooking.  I’m going, again.”  She was saying, “I’m going.  Shari, do you like the way I’m going?  You do?  I’ll do it some more, than.”

Sometimes, it was Bella saying, “You don’t like this?  What about this?  Do you like this?”

There are plenty of times that she does something she thinks is really awesome, and then she turns her head back and tells Shari, “I think that deserved a click.”

With the mild winter, we were still able to get out on the trail periodically.  Bella had her first ride in the snow!  In the spring, when we really started riding again, we had a few bad rides.  You read about them here.  Then, she suddenly became the horse she was at the end of the fall, last year.

Soon, it seemed like she spooked less, traveled with a loose rein, more and just seemed more relaxed.  That’s when we really started having some terrific rides.  So we worked on her following instead of leading.  That was a very easy lesson--because this isn’t the same Bella as before.

The phrase, “Bella being Bella,” is outdated.  Bella is a different horse, now.  We are going to have a fantastic summer of riding.

But what am I going to write about?