Dear Horse lovers,
Today I come home with mixed feelings, proud, in love, excited and a bit concerned.
I spent most of the day with Island (for whom we are still searching a well suited stable name) and our day did not start out on the right foot.
I went out to catch him in his field, yielding the brand new, very handsome halter I had bought for him and to my delight it fit perfectly and looked great. So with a happy heart we started making our way towards the arena so that we could get some ground work done (I did not ride today as we are in the first week of AHS vaccines and they should not be worked too hard during this time), but half way there some inconsiderate woman had two completely crazy dogs that attacked us. Me, being very afraid of dogs (especially this certain breed because I was bitten by one as a child) got a very big fright, Island on the other hand was a real brave hero, instead of being scared or spooking he turned and kicked at them, and thus chasing them away. My heart swells with pride.
But I do want to rant about inconsiderate people for just one paragraph. If you own dogs and you want to take them with to your stable yard keep them on a leash so that they are under control AT ALL TIMES! Had it not been Island and his ever placid, ever chilled nature, but a spooky horse, someone might have gotten hurt, and it probably would have been the person leading the horse. Even though we all love horses and work with them everyday they remain unpredictable and dangerous and people who are so inconsiderate actually should not be allowed near horses, never mind a yard where she is putting others at risk. Rant done.
So after this little incident I walked him over to the arena, asking him to “whoa” and “walk on” a few times to reiterate the voice commands. He was a champion at doing what he was being asked. We then did a few exercises with poles on the ground, which really took a lot of concentration, but at least I know that he has some idea of where his feet are. Bless his heart.
After plenty of bending, “whoaing” and walking over things I thought I would end the day with a little lunge. Well a little lunge turned out to be a whole lot of running around and high, tense atmosphere.
I have never been the best at lunging, I suppose my prejudice against it came from being forced to lunge a very young (IMO rowdy) horse as a very small kid, where the horse completely bombed out, charged me (I luckily got out the way fast enough and immediately got out the arena as well, being a very novice rider and no clue on how to handle situations like these), the horse then proceeded to buck and fart and kick around and eventually jumped the ring and ran off, running through two fences and completely freaking out. I also got severely scolded and was “in the dog box” for the rest of the three day camp. I hated every minute of it.
So him giving a farting kick buck and a good run had me a bit upset, I think more so because of his AHS than him acting up but he then fed off my energy and I off his and the vicious circle began, but I asked him to stop, which took some convincing, and asked the trainer to help me. Even though he was still too forward and still took off once or twice, we managed to end the session on a better and more controlled note (I am a firm believer of always ending on a good note). So my concern is getting myself to be a more relaxed lunger.
I then took him to a small open patch of grass and let him have a graze while I groomed him, which I consider an important bonding tool. Well groomed, feet cleaned and happily munching on yummy grass we set off to his paddock to let him chill out the rest of this lazy Saturday.
Love,
Lawquii and Island
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