Beejay at Adult Riders August 1st
Well. i have a lot to say about my wonderful horse. had a GREAT rally on saturday.
1. am experimenting with 'calming supplements' to take the fricken edge off (especially floating). added powder one (Good as Gold) to his feed on friday night.
2. nice & calm & quiet on saturday morning. might also be the +/- half a bottle of rescue remedy that *i* had as well.
3. had a tanty when faced with the float. been ages since i've seen a big tanty from beejay (and remember when he used to have them ALL THE FUCKING TIME???). anyways. he literally EXPLODES when faced with the float (trailer). so, spent about 25 mins just being calm & quiet & assertive (making him face it & climb up the ramp), then eventually looped a lunge rope around his ass, put pressure on and VOILA into the float in about 2 seconds.
huh.
this definitely seems the MUCH easier approach than parelli - point & shoot/circling game etc & the whip tapping on shoulder = forward etc and so on. he can just get so explosive. it's like, he feels pressure on his ass & just goes, "oh, okay... you want me where... there? okay".... pfffft, ponies.
4. drove at about 50km/hour so took us about 25mins to get there, lol!
he was singing out & crying & definitely restless once there. saddled up & headed to our first 9am lesson.
5. had a flatwork lesson with jenny. i had a xc lesson with her previously that we did super well in, and i wanted to do a "green horse/rider" lesson with her to see how she is. there was only 1 other rider in the hour long class, so that was good.
we were in a dressage 'arena' but it wasn't enclosed or anything. she had set up cones at X, then again on 10m circles at A & C & we had to do a variety of things.
beej was quite hyper & wouldn't stand still, so we were walking around in circles the whole time she was talking. we focused on accuracy & SUBTLETY & not asking so hard. we also worked on flexion.
eventually, after about 40 mins of work, the penny dropped and he worked BEAUTIFULLY. he had one hooner moment, but settled quite quickly again.
anyway, i was absolutely STOKED with her feedback. she reckoned he would do VERY well in a Walk/Trot dressage test & would, based on what she saw today, score in the 70% range... so that was SUPER nice!
i was reluctant to canter, so maybe next time i'll focus on having a bit of canter work too.
6. then we had to stand around for 3 hours until our next lesson, so he got his breakky and hay & i left him at my car whilst i watched other lessons.
something interesting - riders have to categorise themselves - Green horse/rider, Medium & advanced. i find it curious as to how people categorise themselves. honestly, some people in the medium class (which i watched) just SO shouldn't be there... idk, so ur horse can canter... that's great.
are people not at all reflective with their riding? i KNOW i'm a dodgy rider, and i certainly know my horse can be dodgy when faced with new situations & he definitely gets a fucken wasp up his ass sometimes, so i am NOT going to go into a medium class. anywho.
7. i swapped over from advanced pole work to xcountry. had a fall on a practice jump - i could feel him LOOKING at it a mile off (it was a simple log, about 2foot tall) & he felt rushy & forward. i should have had a neckstrap on because his mane is difficult to negotiate atm as it's so short & i usually wear bulky gloves.
wasn't his fault i fell - i was totally looking at the jump & not past it & i didn't have any confidence. must admit, i didn't expect him to refuse as he is normally so honest tho... but yeah, definitely rider's fault there.
but jumped back on & watched whilst the other riders negotiated obstacles on the 'park' (lawn). felt more confident when we went into the bush to do some little jumps & some banks & stuff.
have to focus on my release & she recommended just negotiating canter & trot poles & holding position over them in the arena.
8. he loaded almost immediately (with the lunge rope around his bum) & we went off home. poor thing has a cold so i dosed him up on 2000mg VitC (with licorice) and lots of warm rugs.
so yeah. very stoked with my pony. i think we've come far - from being incapacitated by fear & unable to walk evenly @ our first rally, to cantering circles & doing xc at our 2nd, and to finally doing some NICE flatwork in our 3rd rally. i'm excited about other opportunities. bring them on!
Tackling the coffin
walking the ditch first.
1. am experimenting with 'calming supplements' to take the fricken edge off (especially floating). added powder one (Good as Gold) to his feed on friday night.
2. nice & calm & quiet on saturday morning. might also be the +/- half a bottle of rescue remedy that *i* had as well.
3. had a tanty when faced with the float. been ages since i've seen a big tanty from beejay (and remember when he used to have them ALL THE FUCKING TIME???). anyways. he literally EXPLODES when faced with the float (trailer). so, spent about 25 mins just being calm & quiet & assertive (making him face it & climb up the ramp), then eventually looped a lunge rope around his ass, put pressure on and VOILA into the float in about 2 seconds.
huh.
this definitely seems the MUCH easier approach than parelli - point & shoot/circling game etc & the whip tapping on shoulder = forward etc and so on. he can just get so explosive. it's like, he feels pressure on his ass & just goes, "oh, okay... you want me where... there? okay".... pfffft, ponies.
4. drove at about 50km/hour so took us about 25mins to get there, lol!
he was singing out & crying & definitely restless once there. saddled up & headed to our first 9am lesson.
5. had a flatwork lesson with jenny. i had a xc lesson with her previously that we did super well in, and i wanted to do a "green horse/rider" lesson with her to see how she is. there was only 1 other rider in the hour long class, so that was good.
we were in a dressage 'arena' but it wasn't enclosed or anything. she had set up cones at X, then again on 10m circles at A & C & we had to do a variety of things.
beej was quite hyper & wouldn't stand still, so we were walking around in circles the whole time she was talking. we focused on accuracy & SUBTLETY & not asking so hard. we also worked on flexion.
eventually, after about 40 mins of work, the penny dropped and he worked BEAUTIFULLY. he had one hooner moment, but settled quite quickly again.
anyway, i was absolutely STOKED with her feedback. she reckoned he would do VERY well in a Walk/Trot dressage test & would, based on what she saw today, score in the 70% range... so that was SUPER nice!
i was reluctant to canter, so maybe next time i'll focus on having a bit of canter work too.
6. then we had to stand around for 3 hours until our next lesson, so he got his breakky and hay & i left him at my car whilst i watched other lessons.
something interesting - riders have to categorise themselves - Green horse/rider, Medium & advanced. i find it curious as to how people categorise themselves. honestly, some people in the medium class (which i watched) just SO shouldn't be there... idk, so ur horse can canter... that's great.
are people not at all reflective with their riding? i KNOW i'm a dodgy rider, and i certainly know my horse can be dodgy when faced with new situations & he definitely gets a fucken wasp up his ass sometimes, so i am NOT going to go into a medium class. anywho.
7. i swapped over from advanced pole work to xcountry. had a fall on a practice jump - i could feel him LOOKING at it a mile off (it was a simple log, about 2foot tall) & he felt rushy & forward. i should have had a neckstrap on because his mane is difficult to negotiate atm as it's so short & i usually wear bulky gloves.
wasn't his fault i fell - i was totally looking at the jump & not past it & i didn't have any confidence. must admit, i didn't expect him to refuse as he is normally so honest tho... but yeah, definitely rider's fault there.
but jumped back on & watched whilst the other riders negotiated obstacles on the 'park' (lawn). felt more confident when we went into the bush to do some little jumps & some banks & stuff.
have to focus on my release & she recommended just negotiating canter & trot poles & holding position over them in the arena.
8. he loaded almost immediately (with the lunge rope around his bum) & we went off home. poor thing has a cold so i dosed him up on 2000mg VitC (with licorice) and lots of warm rugs.
so yeah. very stoked with my pony. i think we've come far - from being incapacitated by fear & unable to walk evenly @ our first rally, to cantering circles & doing xc at our 2nd, and to finally doing some NICE flatwork in our 3rd rally. i'm excited about other opportunities. bring them on!
Click to view Tackling the coffin
walking the ditch first.