It is time to bring everyone up to date on Ellen. She has been doing great with Dante in the arena. When I think back to where she was with him last year at this time, it is hard to believe that he is the same horse--and she is the same rider. They have worked so hard on all of their problems--which mostly consisted of his reluctance to go.
And now they are bored.
That is no surprise. Cole and I would have been bored, too, if we weren't able to get out in the park so much this winter. Ellen is more than ready to join us, but she has those annoying anxieties. They always try to hold her back.
This year is going so much better. It all started one day when she had a revelation. She doesn't have to ride outside the barn on the driveway and the 1/4 mile loop in the back of the property to prepare herself for the trail. She doesn't need to get through those anxieties at all. Once she starts to ride in the park, she never rides on the driveway or the loop. It is all about going on the trail. For years, she has been starting in the wrong place. She thought as long as she was still too nervous to ride on the property, how could she ride on the trail?
After her arena rides, she has been bringing Dante out to lead around. I was walking with them, one day, when she led Dante right out of the driveway, onto the street and turned in the neighbor's driveway. They allow us to use their driveway to go back to ours, so she made a loop. I was shocked, because she didn't tell me she was going to do that.
What a surprise! Dante was good. Of course he was good because he is a good horse, but Ellen had to see it for herself. Remember, she has trouble with cognitive distortions. In her head, the horse that will walk quietly down the street 99 percent of the time is the one that she sees spooking at every car that goes by. She has trouble grasping the reality that she has a great horse.
She did this a few more times over that week. The following weekend, she walked Dante past the neighbor's drive to the trail head. I don't remember if it was that time or the next time that she brought him to the mounting block, mounted and sat on his back for a few minutes. She realized that the safest place in the whole world to sit in the saddle with Dante is the mounting block. Most times, she has trouble getting him to leave the block. All he wants to do is stand there. She only lasted about a minute--her heart was racing so much. Dante just stood there.
This progressed as time went on. One day, they took a couple steps. The next it was a few more. And then a few more...
I started to add leading him a little ways down the hill, turning around and going back home. Now, this is really a big deal. It has been years since I have worked with Dante to go down the trail by himself. I gave up with that work since Ellen never would take him by herself. When I did do it, the first few times he would be calling and calling for his friends, and he tended to throw some temper tantrums. As with everything with Dante, once you get through things a couple times, he is great. I just didn't see any reason to go through the agony with him if Ellen wasn't riding him alone.
The first day we took him any distance away from the mounting block, he did throw a temper tantrum at the street on the way home. I just circled him a number of times and told him to stand until he decompressed, and then he was fine. Today, Ellen, (yes, Ellen,) led him about 2/3 of the way down the hill. She wanted me to lead him back. I did part of the way then handed the lead rope back to her to go the rest of the way. She didn't feel able to lead him on the street, so I did. The whole time, he was perfect.
If he is this good by himself, imagine how he will be when his buddies are with him!
There are way less airplanes this year, and that is what terrified Ellen the most. Last spring, Dante was spooking at them. Most of that behavior went away when we decreased his grain. He was starting to get portly. He did do it just enough to keep the anxieties going in Ellen. Well, there are less planes, there is no traffic on the first part of the trail and Dante is doing great on his hill walks.
Maybe Ellen will get on the trail a little sooner this spring? Stay tuned...
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