Having given Annie a week to settle in before I asked her to do any work, I was planning to get cracking with her last week, but with my boss out of action I had a lot of work to do and not really time to do much else. Not that Annie minded, it gave her time to do plenty of this...
However on Friday I managed to persuade my boss's mum to come out for a ride in my lunchbreak, so Annie and I finally got out on our first hack. She was very well-behaved and marched forward confidently all the way round the block - no issues with the cars and tractors we met on the road, or the dogs jumping up at garden gates, or the pheasant that flew out of the hedge in front of her face - I couldn't fault her tbh, she was fab! I did note when I rode her in Portugal that she was quite brave! No ear pics sadly, I didn't take my camera along because it looked like it might rain on us.
Then on Saturday morning I found a moment to take her in the school for the first time. She had been very stressy while I was getting her ready - she is still finding this place quite overwhelming, it has a very different "feel" to her old home and there is lot of strange stuff going on in her life - but once I was on board she didn't feel too bad. As we walked our first lap of the school she realised that she could see her friends from there, as her field is just behind it, so she kept calling to them and was very tense and joggy. Instead of forcing her to walk and getting her more wound up, I pushed her on into trot and let her work off some of that nervous energy. We trotted a few laps and a couple of large circles on each rein, and then had a couple of canters as well. She started off resembling a newly-broken 4-year-old but gradually started to settle and relax a bit and work into a light contact. The most interesting thing was that she stopped calling to her friends as soon as I put her in trot - as soon as she was working, her mind was on the job and not on the fact that she was alone.
Looking very babyish to start
Meeting the elephant
Starting to relax a bit and listen to me more. I like all these photos but you can probably guess which one is my favourite and why I am so excited about having this super little horse...!
We finished up by walking over the water tray a few times, with a ground pole on top. (You can't see the water tray from this angle but I promise it is there!). The first crossing was a massive leap that nearly had me in the sand, but once she'd done it the first time that was it, no more fuss. We just went over it quietly a couple of times - following my boss first, and then on her own - and then called it a day as she was feeling pretty tired!
However on Friday I managed to persuade my boss's mum to come out for a ride in my lunchbreak, so Annie and I finally got out on our first hack. She was very well-behaved and marched forward confidently all the way round the block - no issues with the cars and tractors we met on the road, or the dogs jumping up at garden gates, or the pheasant that flew out of the hedge in front of her face - I couldn't fault her tbh, she was fab! I did note when I rode her in Portugal that she was quite brave! No ear pics sadly, I didn't take my camera along because it looked like it might rain on us.
Then on Saturday morning I found a moment to take her in the school for the first time. She had been very stressy while I was getting her ready - she is still finding this place quite overwhelming, it has a very different "feel" to her old home and there is lot of strange stuff going on in her life - but once I was on board she didn't feel too bad. As we walked our first lap of the school she realised that she could see her friends from there, as her field is just behind it, so she kept calling to them and was very tense and joggy. Instead of forcing her to walk and getting her more wound up, I pushed her on into trot and let her work off some of that nervous energy. We trotted a few laps and a couple of large circles on each rein, and then had a couple of canters as well. She started off resembling a newly-broken 4-year-old but gradually started to settle and relax a bit and work into a light contact. The most interesting thing was that she stopped calling to her friends as soon as I put her in trot - as soon as she was working, her mind was on the job and not on the fact that she was alone.
Looking very babyish to start
Meeting the elephant
Starting to relax a bit and listen to me more. I like all these photos but you can probably guess which one is my favourite and why I am so excited about having this super little horse...!
We finished up by walking over the water tray a few times, with a ground pole on top. (You can't see the water tray from this angle but I promise it is there!). The first crossing was a massive leap that nearly had me in the sand, but once she'd done it the first time that was it, no more fuss. We just went over it quietly a couple of times - following my boss first, and then on her own - and then called it a day as she was feeling pretty tired!
