Ha ha.. I'm sensing a trend. And thank goodness I know this trend already from Danomite. Such a good kiddo.... Heathen.... such a good kiddo.... FERAL BEAST!! ha ha.
Today was a good day!
Both ponies field tripped to Rana's again. I left early, but somehow pulled in right at our start time. Which, Rana was sweet about and didn't care, but I don't like it! They had the babies turned out next to the paddock I had put Funny in last time, so... I decided to leave Dan on the trailer and start with Funny. It was overcast enough that he was fine in there and I don't quite trust her yet on their alone for more than a few minutes at a time. I was hoping to do her second so she could run off some steam, but it all worked out. She was stellar!
I groomed her and picked her feet and swapped her to her rope halter in anticipation of it being a disaster. We walked down to the arena and only had one little rear. Which, seemed like it was an acceptable rear. Ha... acceptable rear. I meant she had a fair excuse and it was not directed at me and she came right back down and settled. We did some pillar one and walking in the indoor and she settled really quickly and was licking and chewing and soft. Rana was impressed. I swapped her out for the cavesson as she was being so good and we went to work.
She wasn't perfect, but she tried and we had lots of good stuff. It was helpful because she did some of the stuff she does at home so I was able to get Rana's advice. But Rana was impressed. She's starting to figure out that she can soften her neck and lower her head and keep trotting. She gets really lovely when she goes there, but she can't hold it for long. BUT, if I plan ahead.... knowing that when she drops her head its hard and thus she often stops trotting, I can plan ahead and cluck and encourage her. Also, side note... try to coordinate my clucks with my whips, so that eventually the clucks get the forward response! And speaking of planning ahead... as she makes the egg shape, I can plan ahead. Which, I knew... and had been trying to do, but it's hard to coordinate all the things. Ha ha. Rana said to make sure that I'm not holding when I do these things.. that I'm half halting and releasing, not just hanging. And the things I'm aiming for are...
- soft, turned off brachiocephalic/underneck
- dropped nose, but forward and reaching with her nose
- slow trot rhythm, not running
- her eyes on me (Half halt if not)
- bend in the barrel - but this will take some time. This is hard for her, especially going to the left
- watch that her inside hind tracks slightly to the inside of her inside front, and the outside hind tracks slightly inside the track of the outside front.
- she likes to fishtail, so make sure that I stay at her shoulder, although tracking left I do have to get a hair more behind her shoulder
- She should pay attention to my body language so match my near leg to her near foreleg and step into her to push her shoulder out.
I think that was it. Ha! It's a lot to pay attention to. But we managed to get a lot of nice work. She's really starting to figure it out and there was only one little piss off moment. And that's because she turned her circle into an egg and I fought her and she pulled. Oh, and at one point (hee hee..) the flags on the rail flapped as she came into that corner and she stopped and had to investigate. She was a little jumpy but was super brave and charged forward to investigate! But yes, we got some good stuff. She's still struggling with the bend and lifting her back, but she's getting the slower trot and lowering her head and turning off her neck. And she's starting to get the bend, at least as far as her feet tracking up. We did both directions and then went back to the right again. I did ask Rana how much was too much and how little was too little? Like... on the days she's an idiot and goes squirting around like a food.... obviously that's not ideal. And even if she is working properly, is daily or 5 days a week too much? Because she almost seems like she needs daily work or she reverts to feral. Rana said it was tough but that she could easily do 10 minutes or less of proper biomechanical lunge work without having any ill effects. Because she's not putting any shear or torque on her joints. But when she squirts off, that's not ideal. She said to try to engage her brain too and move her body parts specifically - like...the shoulder... then the hind end... then the barrel. So yeah... I guess the correct answer is going to be "play it by ear" and go by how Funny is doing. Plus I can add in some hacking with Dan to help with the feral tendencies and also do pillar work every day without necessarily doing arena work. And maybe on the days after a break, use the roundpen vs the arena.
So then I rinsed her and put her in the giant foaling stall. She screamed a good bit, but she was fine. When Dan was done they stood tied to the trailer eating hay for about 15 minutes while I cleaned out the trailer and then snuggled with the new baby horse. I loaded Dan first and she self loaded right after him. (Sort of cheating, but.. she was so good I figured it wasn't a day to fight that battle or challenge her). We stopped and got hay at the feed store and then headed home. GOOD GIRL!!!!! She's growing up so nicely. Rana even mentioned (unprompted) today how her neck was coming along nicely. Which is great because I have a hard time telling with her. Yay!
