Working in the Arena

  Cole

 

Working in the Arena

It is finally time to buckle down and work in the arena  We have been really lucky this winter.  Most days, we were at least able to ride on the hill, and quite often, we were able to cross the river.  Some of the rides were extremely cold, but a surprisingly large amount of them were warm and the footing was decent enough to trot.  Being able to trot helps keep us warm.  We won't trot on the hard, frozen, uneven ground.  Those rides can get pretty chilly--but we did them anyway.

Then we started to get some really, really cold weather with the frozen ground.  Cole recently had his feet trimmed, too, and he was not happy about it.  He kept trying to step off the trail--and when Cole isn't happy, neither am I.  It was time to start arena riding.

Ellen has been riding Dante in the arena all along, so nothing changed for her--except now she has to ride with Cole and me, too.  

Last winter was a mild one, where I did very little work in the arena.  Essentially, I have ignored this part of Cole's training for a long time; and it shows.

The indoor arena at our new barn is really nice.  Unlike the old barn's metal building with doors that flapped all around in the wind, this is a solid wooden arena with heavy doors that only move on the very windiest days.  It is so much quieter--and warmer.  They water the sand every single day, so there is never, ever any trace of dust.  It is such a pleasant place to work our horses.

I have ridden in it a little bit just to get Cole used to the new area, and I have noticed he is far less jumpy than in the previous place.  That makes a big difference for me.  I am spending a lot less time just getting him to stay quiet and focused.

That means we have to work.

On our first day, he didn't want to work at all.  He would barely trot ten steps before he would putter down to a walk.  I have to confess, I was beginning to lose my patience.   It was good to have Shari there.  She reminded me that I have barely worked in the arena with Cole, and I needed to keep my patience.  Thanks, Shari.

That first ride was a tough one.  I decided to come up with a simple plan for my next ride; which was the following morning.  We would work on walk/trot transitions and gradually extend the distance of our trotting--just like we did when he was a baby horse.  I would reinforce his good behavior with clicker training.

Three sides of our new arena have stalls on the edges.  Since it was the morning that they clean all the water buckets, they were still doing the watering.  That meant that the hose was stretched all across the arena and every few minutes, it would move.  Since I didn't want Cole to step on the hose when he was trotting, I used it as my spot to stop, step over and start up trotting again.  This gave me a goal.  

It worked.  In no time, we were trotting half the arena at a time.  What an improvement from the previous day!  Eventually, the hose was gone, and we were trotting full laps.  

Since Ellen was in there, and Dante has a slower trot, when we approached him, I would try to turn him in a circle so we wouldn't pass him.  That is when my next problem showed up.  Cole didn't want to trot away from the wall.  He would drop down to a walk.

Immediately, I knew what we were going to work on the next day.

The following day, I began our circle lesson on our walk warm up.  We would walk a ways and I would ask him to leave the wall and go in a small circle.  He had no problem with that.  As soon as I tried it at a trot, he would go right back to the walk--since that is just what I was practicing.  Okay, that didn't work.

Ellen wanted to change directions, so we did.  On the new way, I didn't practice the circles at a walk, but went right to the trot.  I knew that if I wanted to be successful, I also had to do my share--it wasn't only Cole's responsibility.  I had to make sure I was sitting properly for a bend--something that I have to practice at since I have barely even thought about it in the last 2 years.  Also, I had to keep a driving seat.

This was tough!  I used to be so good at it!  Ellen was smart to not quit riding in the arena.  She still had all of her skills.  I knew what I had to do, but my body wouldn't listen to me.  

Finally, we got some half circles.  I clicked and treated him--and then he suddenly became more cooperative.  We started to get some full circles.  I clicked him for that, too.  As he understood what I wanted, it was also easier for me to sit properly and I didn't need such a strong driving seat.  

And then, Ellen wanted to switch directions.  We were once again going the way where he really wanted to hold on to the walking habit.  Now, I knew what to do, but it was still a bit of a struggle.  We finally got a few circles that I could click him for, and we called it a day.  

After that, we just worked on walking straight along the wall, (not nearly as easy as it sounds if you want to do it correctly.) and bending on the corners at a walk.  That also gave me a chance to practice using my seat properly on bends.

Well, that was our first 3 days in the indoor arena.  According to the forecast, I can see there will be many more to come.  I don't know how long it will take before Cole gets back to where he used to be.  At this rate, as soon as he does--I will be back out on the trail--and then I will have to start all over next winter.