VERY interesting ride
well.
as the title goes, i had a very interesting ride on beejay last night.
he was quite sooky, but not in my pocket when i first went to see him. spent some time brushing him & playing friendly game, because for SOME FUCKING LALA REASON i am extremely static at the moment, so the poor bastard was getting ZAPPED every time i touched him. as you can imagine, after about 3 zaps, he decided he did not like me AT ALL and thought it was better to keep a healthy distance. so i had to make sure i was touching him the whole time i was grooming.
i think it was because a) the weather, b) his fly rug c) my hairy legs with jodhpurs and d) the fact i was wearing my rubber thongs (flipflops!) & hadn't put my boots on yet.
also a bit of friendly game to get his saddle on. in retrospect, i can see why he's reluctant to be saddled (he sees it and starts sidling away), as the last few times he was saddled he was also ridden quite hard. hrm.
anyway. just after i jumped on, kelli showed up. we waited for her to get guinness organised then rode out together off the property. whilst waiting i gave beej a few squirts of Rescue Remedy as well as myself, considering we were going out late in the day. no harm in it for either of us, that's what i think.
we let the horses have their heads & beej quickly took the lead. he decided to go a way we haven't gone before (in a year) and we haven't schooled or done any games out that way either. he was fairly brisk & seemed confident and was going along at a good pace. this is a very different route - it's hilly, cleared, lots of low shrub & grassland. it was a bit windy & it was late in the arvo, so a few long shadows. beej was concerned about a few things, but nothing i wouldn't expect.
all good.
UNTIL WE TURNED FOR HOME.
fuck me.
BOTH the boys got naughty & it seemed apparent that they were feeding off each other. beejay was sidepassing & shoulder-in-ing all over the place. he was TIGHT and COILED LIKE A SPRING and i was flexing him all over the joint to keep him tuned on me. that was okay. we went along like that for a while & he really just felt like an antsy TBred. that's okay, i can handle it. guinness was doing similar (he bunches up like a spring too & jogs). guinness ALWAYS gets 'joggy' on the way home & will sometimes reef or be giraffe like. on our previous rides out he has also done this, but with no affect at all on beej. anyways.
we had to stop for a while & started singing out for Kelli's dog, Sam, who had done a runner (prob chasing kangas). all good. we called for a while & the horses stood still & even relaxed a bit. sam eventually showed up & we turned to go the way we were heading...
except for beej....
WHO COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN A LA BEEJYLAND!!! omg, it's been so long. he was *gone*. no beejy in sight. all the leg, flexion, kicking, turning in the saddle, whatever... nothing made him wake up. Eventually he did & decided that going highspeed sideways like a crab was helpful, so we had to do MORe flexion & one rein stops. eventually he agreed with me that going forwards was much more progressive.
i feel a bit anxious now talking about it, but at the time i wasn't very stressed. or i didn't seem stressed. it must have been the rescue remedy!
he was SO FUCKING TIGHT man, it was unbelieveable. i had to do SO much half halting and using my legs to keep him from tuning out; i could feel it totally in his body. at one stage he had a complete lala @ tried to unseat me with some very tricky sideways/forwards/upsidedown amazingly fast footwork, but i managed to stick on and push him forward into a very brisk canter on a small circle. we went off the track where the ground was undulating & had a few obstacles, so he had to really think about where his feet were going. i didn't let him stop & kelli was shouting encouragement from the side! once i let him stop, he sighed, relaxed and moved forward in a much softer & responsive manner. Kelli said i looked totally determined and not at all fussed or worried, which is awesome.
both boys were still worked up as we approached the back gate. kelli wanted to school guinness a bit in the area near the back gate & i decided to go into our arena for further schooling.
as i took beejay thru the gate, he was hardfuckingwired and so tense, it was amazing. as we got further into the property, he got more & more relaxed until he was VERY relaxed & cruisy as we were parellel with the arena. i rode him forward, past the arena and back up towards the back of the property. STILL relaxed.
we passed guinness on the way; kelli decided to school him in the arena.
and i did some walk work with beej at the very back of the property. he was fine (a bit tense) but rode forward okay UNTIL he saw guinness in the arena & was so OMFG distracted by that, i was practically drilling into him with my body to get him to move off my leg. we sidepassed along the whole back boundary fence, and then back again, several times, with quite a lot of serpentines, loops, transitions, etc etc. silly monkey. EVENTUALLY he stopped worrying about guinness and focused on me.
took him into the arena to cool down, but he had some prancing like a monkey moments so had to be ridden forward quite a bit. he was walking VERY quickly at the walk & kelli was like, "REMEMBER TO BREATHE!" and as soon as i did, he stopped. magic word- BREATHE!
idk about this. Kelli thinks it's progress that this is the first time he's visited beejyland since last year & i think it's progress that i didn't stress (omg i was totally glued to that saddle -touchwood- and not stressed, i'm amazed). She reckons that 'they're thoroughbreds. they'll have brain melts every now and then, and you've gotta ride them thru it."
i definitely think i rode him thru that. i guess i was getting a bit complacent about his beeyland visits & thinking he was beyond them? i haven't been ON him for one of them tho for a fucking long time and i think the last time was when he threw me off in the pine forrest, this time last year.
Today is going to be interesting because a friend of mine is coming over to school us. wee!
she'll be there at 3.30 and we're going to work on balance & long and low, so that should be good.
my aim with riding beejay lately has been 'having fun' and 'riding out with confidence' from both of us, but i think i want to focus on some schooling for now - for both of us.
i may ride him out again sometime soon - and i do believe that the only way for him to grow confident in riding out is to do it more often. i do think i was a good leader for him last night and although he felt at times he needed to lead himself and go to his 'safe place' i was able to get him back and show him the way. i felt quite confident in myself as his leader now and i don't think i let him down and i didn't allow him to tell me when he was done or what he was going to do. i talked to him the whole time and i didn't once feel frustrated or at a loss - which again, is progress for ME. i didn't feel that sense of hopelessness that may come from such a ride with a horse, and it was super good to have kelli there observing his reactions and mine. saying small things like, "oh, he looks like he's there now" was really helpful to me as a rider, as well as her saying, "GET YOUR LEG ON HIM ... NOW!" was also helpful. lala. She said that i'm his leader at home & on the ground now so we have to work on that on top & off the property.
oh, i wonder also about the Rescue Remedy. that stuff is always good & it's clearly helped with him on the float, but i wonder if using it out on an outside ride like that allowed too many emotions to come to the surface for him??? thus resulting in the visit to beejyland because it was just too much/too hard for him to deal with? may ask my bowen lady about that, although she has said i should use the calmer supplement for rides off the property...
i *think* it helped me tho. idk.
as the title goes, i had a very interesting ride on beejay last night.
he was quite sooky, but not in my pocket when i first went to see him. spent some time brushing him & playing friendly game, because for SOME FUCKING LALA REASON i am extremely static at the moment, so the poor bastard was getting ZAPPED every time i touched him. as you can imagine, after about 3 zaps, he decided he did not like me AT ALL and thought it was better to keep a healthy distance. so i had to make sure i was touching him the whole time i was grooming.
i think it was because a) the weather, b) his fly rug c) my hairy legs with jodhpurs and d) the fact i was wearing my rubber thongs (flipflops!) & hadn't put my boots on yet.
also a bit of friendly game to get his saddle on. in retrospect, i can see why he's reluctant to be saddled (he sees it and starts sidling away), as the last few times he was saddled he was also ridden quite hard. hrm.
anyway. just after i jumped on, kelli showed up. we waited for her to get guinness organised then rode out together off the property. whilst waiting i gave beej a few squirts of Rescue Remedy as well as myself, considering we were going out late in the day. no harm in it for either of us, that's what i think.
we let the horses have their heads & beej quickly took the lead. he decided to go a way we haven't gone before (in a year) and we haven't schooled or done any games out that way either. he was fairly brisk & seemed confident and was going along at a good pace. this is a very different route - it's hilly, cleared, lots of low shrub & grassland. it was a bit windy & it was late in the arvo, so a few long shadows. beej was concerned about a few things, but nothing i wouldn't expect.
all good.
UNTIL WE TURNED FOR HOME.
fuck me.
BOTH the boys got naughty & it seemed apparent that they were feeding off each other. beejay was sidepassing & shoulder-in-ing all over the place. he was TIGHT and COILED LIKE A SPRING and i was flexing him all over the joint to keep him tuned on me. that was okay. we went along like that for a while & he really just felt like an antsy TBred. that's okay, i can handle it. guinness was doing similar (he bunches up like a spring too & jogs). guinness ALWAYS gets 'joggy' on the way home & will sometimes reef or be giraffe like. on our previous rides out he has also done this, but with no affect at all on beej. anyways.
we had to stop for a while & started singing out for Kelli's dog, Sam, who had done a runner (prob chasing kangas). all good. we called for a while & the horses stood still & even relaxed a bit. sam eventually showed up & we turned to go the way we were heading...
except for beej....
WHO COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN A LA BEEJYLAND!!! omg, it's been so long. he was *gone*. no beejy in sight. all the leg, flexion, kicking, turning in the saddle, whatever... nothing made him wake up. Eventually he did & decided that going highspeed sideways like a crab was helpful, so we had to do MORe flexion & one rein stops. eventually he agreed with me that going forwards was much more progressive.
i feel a bit anxious now talking about it, but at the time i wasn't very stressed. or i didn't seem stressed. it must have been the rescue remedy!
he was SO FUCKING TIGHT man, it was unbelieveable. i had to do SO much half halting and using my legs to keep him from tuning out; i could feel it totally in his body. at one stage he had a complete lala @ tried to unseat me with some very tricky sideways/forwards/upsidedown amazingly fast footwork, but i managed to stick on and push him forward into a very brisk canter on a small circle. we went off the track where the ground was undulating & had a few obstacles, so he had to really think about where his feet were going. i didn't let him stop & kelli was shouting encouragement from the side! once i let him stop, he sighed, relaxed and moved forward in a much softer & responsive manner. Kelli said i looked totally determined and not at all fussed or worried, which is awesome.
both boys were still worked up as we approached the back gate. kelli wanted to school guinness a bit in the area near the back gate & i decided to go into our arena for further schooling.
as i took beejay thru the gate, he was hardfuckingwired and so tense, it was amazing. as we got further into the property, he got more & more relaxed until he was VERY relaxed & cruisy as we were parellel with the arena. i rode him forward, past the arena and back up towards the back of the property. STILL relaxed.
we passed guinness on the way; kelli decided to school him in the arena.
and i did some walk work with beej at the very back of the property. he was fine (a bit tense) but rode forward okay UNTIL he saw guinness in the arena & was so OMFG distracted by that, i was practically drilling into him with my body to get him to move off my leg. we sidepassed along the whole back boundary fence, and then back again, several times, with quite a lot of serpentines, loops, transitions, etc etc. silly monkey. EVENTUALLY he stopped worrying about guinness and focused on me.
took him into the arena to cool down, but he had some prancing like a monkey moments so had to be ridden forward quite a bit. he was walking VERY quickly at the walk & kelli was like, "REMEMBER TO BREATHE!" and as soon as i did, he stopped. magic word- BREATHE!
idk about this. Kelli thinks it's progress that this is the first time he's visited beejyland since last year & i think it's progress that i didn't stress (omg i was totally glued to that saddle -touchwood- and not stressed, i'm amazed). She reckons that 'they're thoroughbreds. they'll have brain melts every now and then, and you've gotta ride them thru it."
i definitely think i rode him thru that. i guess i was getting a bit complacent about his beeyland visits & thinking he was beyond them? i haven't been ON him for one of them tho for a fucking long time and i think the last time was when he threw me off in the pine forrest, this time last year.
Today is going to be interesting because a friend of mine is coming over to school us. wee!
she'll be there at 3.30 and we're going to work on balance & long and low, so that should be good.
my aim with riding beejay lately has been 'having fun' and 'riding out with confidence' from both of us, but i think i want to focus on some schooling for now - for both of us.
i may ride him out again sometime soon - and i do believe that the only way for him to grow confident in riding out is to do it more often. i do think i was a good leader for him last night and although he felt at times he needed to lead himself and go to his 'safe place' i was able to get him back and show him the way. i felt quite confident in myself as his leader now and i don't think i let him down and i didn't allow him to tell me when he was done or what he was going to do. i talked to him the whole time and i didn't once feel frustrated or at a loss - which again, is progress for ME. i didn't feel that sense of hopelessness that may come from such a ride with a horse, and it was super good to have kelli there observing his reactions and mine. saying small things like, "oh, he looks like he's there now" was really helpful to me as a rider, as well as her saying, "GET YOUR LEG ON HIM ... NOW!" was also helpful. lala. She said that i'm his leader at home & on the ground now so we have to work on that on top & off the property.
oh, i wonder also about the Rescue Remedy. that stuff is always good & it's clearly helped with him on the float, but i wonder if using it out on an outside ride like that allowed too many emotions to come to the surface for him??? thus resulting in the visit to beejyland because it was just too much/too hard for him to deal with? may ask my bowen lady about that, although she has said i should use the calmer supplement for rides off the property...
i *think* it helped me tho. idk.