And by not broke, I'm not sure if I mean not "broken" or.... FERAL! Or both. ;)
Sigh... I hope I'm laughing at this later.
I got on Funny today after her stifle injections. It's only been 5 days, so.. I know they aren't at full effect. I also changed the gullet plate in her saddle and I do think it's fitting better now. We walked in hand up to the arena and then did a single lap of pillar walking. Then I got on and gave her cookies for being a good girl at the mounting block. So then we walked off. She was a bit up and sassy and chompy but she walked well. She felt pretty good and wasn't balking or not wanting to go forward. So yay!
So then we picked up the trot and ... she was feral! Like.. forgot how to steer feral. Quick. Sigh... I was hanging on her face again. But she was sassy and threatened to spook and bolt a time or too. In fact, she did spook once at the walk and she dropped about 3 feet down and went 4 feet sideways. I'm kind of impressed how easily I sat it. And then she just carried on. But it was not a good ride. She was definitely improved in her soundness. She only did the hopping/bucking/humping up thing a few times. And she was definitely back to forward. In fact, she was running really. I didn't canter today. I just didn't have it in me and figured she was still a little sore. I was having troubles turning her to the left. She kept falling in hard core and somehow (whether it was her doing her little bucking thing or what) she kept throwing me onto the wrong diagonal. She wouldn't bend and when she did bend/yield her left jaw, she was in a tiny circle. I don't know if it's discomfort... or just her locking on the left jaw and me not knowing how to fix it?
It's so frustrating. I don't know if she's lame or just feral. I don't know if I should have her vetted again or ... at this point... send her off to a trainer. And I don't really mean that because... by golly, I really want to do this myself. But good gravy she's been under saddle a year now... and we can't even steer correctly!? Do I really suck that bad? She's got no concept of connection and at this point I'm just waterskiing around up there mostly just trying to stay on and get her to go in some semblance of the direction I want. Sigh... I eventually got a decent right circle and a semi decent part of a left circle and gave up. We went out the driveway and were going to go for a short hack. Jean's yearling came galloping up and Funny tried to spook and bolt twice. I managed to get her in the culdesac and then she settled a little bit. We made it halfway to the dam down skyline and then Jean and her intern were coming up by the lake so I figured I should just turn around and head back vs trying to either join them or go past them. She was pretty good heading home and didn't give me any more trouble.
But .... after I got off and hosed her and turned her back out, I just wanted to cry. And I'm trying to tell myself that she is just a chestnut appy mare and tough. And she's had two weeks off. And she's maybe still a little sore. I guess I'll see how she is Thursday when we're at 7 days... and then not sure if I'll get a chance to ride her this weekend. I've got the Tik clinic coming up and was hoping to stay and watch all weekend too. But maybe I can sneak in a little ride. Of course I'm not even sure which horse I'm going to bring at this point.
No photos because she was feral enough I didn't really want to ride one handed for very long.
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