you bet as soon as my new surcingle arrives, and I can pick up a bit that she finds comfortable, I'm not going to lunge her in her current one which is just a smidge too small for her.
Well we had another lesson today, and while it went well, it could have been quite bad. I worked her to her left first, walk trot and canter, she has a problem with the idea that she really CAN just relax and walk at the end of the line, which was my goal today. (Walk/Trot transitions)
Well she did ok at the left so I turned her around to the right...and thats when the fight began! I cantered her a little bit and she bucked around the ring, but finally settled out and I asked her to drop to a trot. The second I asked her to trot she turned to the left and tried to go that way. But instead of turning around with a nice request she kept going. When I finally got her around she was quite smug and at a canter again.
So I asked her to drop to trot and as soon as she turned around the fire works went off. I snapped the whip, I waved it around, flicked it at her, hauled the line to the right and in general made it very uncomfortable to go to the left. She still continued to go to the left, but started side passing. So I let the whip get closer and louder and continued pulling lightly at the halter and urging her as hard as I could to the right.
Ooooh were we a sulky mare.
To the right then, but once more at a canter. So I let her canter, as soon as she dropped to a trot on her own I urged her on again and she would snort and plunge on. (And she's only getting half a quart of sweet feed to mix in with her jello, sometimes less.)
Finally I asked her to trot, and we tried to reverse again. So like before, I started with a quiet request and moved it up to yelling and waving. This time she didn't need me to pull her head around though, it only took me a few seconds to get her back on track, and once more cantering.
Tried it again, and this time when she slowed up to fuss, I asked her for an animated trot and we trotted right through! So she got lots of praise and a slacked rein, and off we went, canter/trot/canter/trot
Then we tried for the trot/walk transition and it was back to the same old.
For an hour we would do trot/walk transition, she would fuss and back to the canter we went, then canter/trot and we were fine, then trot/walk and we were not fine, then finally she would slow down to a jog when asked to walk, but didn't reverse.
Then finally I started making the circle smaller and smaller and harder to do her trot, until she nice as you please started walking.
I think she was having a cross between a dominance issue and an energy high. Right after I finished with this, I had an angel on my hands. She simply could not have been better.
The work out ended up being 45 minutes when I'd only intended it to be 15, and she was sweating and panting, so I took her for a walk to cool her out. So began our second adventure.
She was clearly willing to trust my advice in any situation while we were walking
D) and our conversation would go like this.
"Whats THAT? Is that a bear?"
"No...its just a pile of fencing."
"Oh...ok"
(Normally it would be "No, I REALLY think its a bear, lets stop.")
"What about that? Is that a lion? Should we run?"
"Nah...just a bag..."
"Oh...um...ok, are we going to walk over it?"
"Yep."
"Why?"
"Its easier."
"Ok."
Then we passed all the scary stuff, and she was relaxed and breathing better, so she started in on her second problem I'd been having problems with. Her barging ahead of me and insisting that I walk at HER shoulder.
So I gave her all the lead rope and she was walking ahead trying to decide where she wanted to go, and I tried something I'd read in a dog book to teach dogs to heel.
While she strolled ahead, not paying any attention to me or where I was going, I quietly turned around and walked in the other direction. She didn't notice till she walked into the lead, realized I'd changed directions whirled around and trotted up to get ahead of me again.
That was fine, I let her (she had alll the lead) and then quietly turned around again. No warning, the rope was slack.
After this happened a few times, she thought she'd figured out the game. She trotted to get ahead of me, then turned as if I was going to turn again. I let her turn around me and head in the other direction, and kept going straight.
So now she had to trot a whole loop around me to get ahead. She only tried that one once, smart cookie!
So now she thought about it, and started doing more side passes (With I might add, great cross overs and a beautiful arched neck AND bending at the same time, all to the right)
trying to stay ahead and made sure I wasn't gonna make some crazy move again. It didn't work too well because I kept going straight and it was HARD to keep that bend.
So finally she came across the solution. She dropped back so that she was in the proper leading possition, and discovered from that possition she could keep an eye on me and not have to work real hard.
When I turned and quietly walked off, she was ready and RIGHT THERE on the spot. If I went up a hill we were ready, if I started to jog we had our trot ready. I came up with everything I could think of and she was ready for me.
Then the final test I stood her, and I walked around her with a loose lead rope, and she stood with out moving around like always.
I took her back to her stall, tied her up and groomed her then. She stood like a rock, allowed me to brush her face (something she's never keen on doing) let me unwrap her legs with out stomping. Picked up all her feet beautifully (she shook one of them a little when I started to put it down, but it was because she had a bit of a sore spot on her hip.)
When I brushed her off, I found the tender spot and massaged it, and so she relaxed even more, and then the big test.
I took the lunging whip that I'd been cracking and making such a fuss with, and to make sure she wasn't afraid of it, I rubbed it all over her.
She stood like a rock, and even used the tip of it to scratch her nose!
All in all we had a lovely time, I didn't have enough time to work with her on her tricks today, but we solved a lot of problems and I'm feeling really confident about our next lessons!
