Mouse at ARC
it's so early & i have no need at all to be up now but o well.
getting colder now too, which is awesome. it's always delightful here in autumn when the shorter days & cooler weather comes. such a reprieve after summer.
had adult riders on mouse on saturday. let's just say i underestimated her naughtiness! it was made WORSE by the fact that karen & Raaj were in every lesson we did as well, so her separation anxiety was off the planet.
and i thought beej was bad! he's just big & fast! small, fat arabs still have it in them.
she started out having a big hissy at being at a new environment. to be expected. so we did lots of circles & loops & went over and 'warmed up' (if it can be called that!) by ourselves. she had a right fit about being separated from raaj. and then, she threw in a couple of bouncy little rears, which i haven't experienced in a long time (beej isn't really a rearer) and i had about 0.121secs of OH SHIT then regained my senses & said, "HAHA MOUSE, I HAVE A BEEJAY! bring it on!"
to which she responded with "HO KAY!" haha.
anyway. in our first flatwork lesson with jenny she was pretty much in heat, so was flashing her ass at anyone who approached, and would NOT. STAND.STILL. she was creeping her butt around to try and flash the poor gelding next to us whilst we were in the lineup. ugh. the lesson was good tho as we worked on half halts & she was REALLY starting to work NICELY by the end of it. however, she was funny cos she'd throw in these totally random, out of nowhere, hissy fits. like pathetic little bucky broncy things, or she'd be going along fine & then have a complete fit & throw her head all over the place & get mightily offended about it.
we had a few comments from people watching the lesson tho saying how nicely she was working after she got over herself, which is good.
- ride my corners
- less bend in the circle (especially to the left, which is explained in the next lesson)
i swear tho, i pretty much felt my back give out about 3/4 of the way in. after the morning lesson i spent ages just stretching it out. riding her is like riding a concrete mixer that goes up & down as well. UGH.
then afternoon - pole work lesson with deb. the class was huge tho, which is awkward. that's a good thing about qualified instructors tho, they have a clear idea of how to get everyone going around so after a while we were practically a finely tuned quadrille team!
anyway, she was really very good, but did throw in a couple of tantrums just to remind me that she's a powerful redhead. her canter left was quite good... canter right? a bit scary. asked her & she went into this VERY IMPRESSIVE bronc routine. pushed her forward & i could literally HEAR her go, "oh..." haha. then deb was like, "uhm, does she do that a lot?" glad i could say "Er, no!"
she had several more little head tanties. Very peculiar - she's going along quite nicely then has this complete tantrum in the front end & her front legs kind of come to a screaming halt whilst she sorts herself out & we get going again. lasts about 3 seconds then she's over it.
according to deb (eyes on the ground) she pops herself or something. like she's going along, then has a little wiggle, then gets OFFENDED by it & has a tanty. so i'm literally not doing anything, not in her face or hanging onto her or anything, it comes entirely from her. Karen said that she also does this when on endurance rides. she'll be going along fine & then will just have a shitfit with her front end. it must be the anxiety of being out? cos i saw no indication of this kind of thing whilst riding in the arena & i've challenged her a bit in there. she doesn't just plunk around.
- her head also drifts to the left. i have to go back to yielding & get her OFF my fucking right leg so i can keep her head straight but also keep her moving straight because when i use the reins to try & straighten her head, she'll respond with her body & start going right.
anyway, i thought that was all very interesting.
we did have a success whilst lining up. there was a minor discussion with a dressage whip, about drifting into other ponies to flash them. she figured out that was NOT appropriate lady-like behaviour & stopped doing it. yay!
i went to ride her yesterday but she was a bit sore in her back after saturday's shenanigans (not to mention 2 x hour long lessons) so i lunged her instead. she is an interesting lunger - i had her loose but she was very worked up from the 2stroke trail bikes hooning around on the property next door. apparently she and paul were once terrorised by a couple of them out in the bush & they circled them & stuff. how awful! poor baby.
then my lessee came so she had a mini-break whilst i signed paper work & showed emily my gear etc.
then back into the round pen. i put her in a couple of side reins (very loose) and we just did about 10mins of w/t/c both ways. she's obviously been free-lunged her whole life cos she turns in to face & cuts in etc. but she worked quite nicely once we had a lil discussion about personal space.
getting colder now too, which is awesome. it's always delightful here in autumn when the shorter days & cooler weather comes. such a reprieve after summer.
had adult riders on mouse on saturday. let's just say i underestimated her naughtiness! it was made WORSE by the fact that karen & Raaj were in every lesson we did as well, so her separation anxiety was off the planet.
and i thought beej was bad! he's just big & fast! small, fat arabs still have it in them.
she started out having a big hissy at being at a new environment. to be expected. so we did lots of circles & loops & went over and 'warmed up' (if it can be called that!) by ourselves. she had a right fit about being separated from raaj. and then, she threw in a couple of bouncy little rears, which i haven't experienced in a long time (beej isn't really a rearer) and i had about 0.121secs of OH SHIT then regained my senses & said, "HAHA MOUSE, I HAVE A BEEJAY! bring it on!"
to which she responded with "HO KAY!" haha.
anyway. in our first flatwork lesson with jenny she was pretty much in heat, so was flashing her ass at anyone who approached, and would NOT. STAND.STILL. she was creeping her butt around to try and flash the poor gelding next to us whilst we were in the lineup. ugh. the lesson was good tho as we worked on half halts & she was REALLY starting to work NICELY by the end of it. however, she was funny cos she'd throw in these totally random, out of nowhere, hissy fits. like pathetic little bucky broncy things, or she'd be going along fine & then have a complete fit & throw her head all over the place & get mightily offended about it.
we had a few comments from people watching the lesson tho saying how nicely she was working after she got over herself, which is good.
- ride my corners
- less bend in the circle (especially to the left, which is explained in the next lesson)
i swear tho, i pretty much felt my back give out about 3/4 of the way in. after the morning lesson i spent ages just stretching it out. riding her is like riding a concrete mixer that goes up & down as well. UGH.
then afternoon - pole work lesson with deb. the class was huge tho, which is awkward. that's a good thing about qualified instructors tho, they have a clear idea of how to get everyone going around so after a while we were practically a finely tuned quadrille team!
anyway, she was really very good, but did throw in a couple of tantrums just to remind me that she's a powerful redhead. her canter left was quite good... canter right? a bit scary. asked her & she went into this VERY IMPRESSIVE bronc routine. pushed her forward & i could literally HEAR her go, "oh..." haha. then deb was like, "uhm, does she do that a lot?" glad i could say "Er, no!"
she had several more little head tanties. Very peculiar - she's going along quite nicely then has this complete tantrum in the front end & her front legs kind of come to a screaming halt whilst she sorts herself out & we get going again. lasts about 3 seconds then she's over it.
according to deb (eyes on the ground) she pops herself or something. like she's going along, then has a little wiggle, then gets OFFENDED by it & has a tanty. so i'm literally not doing anything, not in her face or hanging onto her or anything, it comes entirely from her. Karen said that she also does this when on endurance rides. she'll be going along fine & then will just have a shitfit with her front end. it must be the anxiety of being out? cos i saw no indication of this kind of thing whilst riding in the arena & i've challenged her a bit in there. she doesn't just plunk around.
- her head also drifts to the left. i have to go back to yielding & get her OFF my fucking right leg so i can keep her head straight but also keep her moving straight because when i use the reins to try & straighten her head, she'll respond with her body & start going right.
anyway, i thought that was all very interesting.
we did have a success whilst lining up. there was a minor discussion with a dressage whip, about drifting into other ponies to flash them. she figured out that was NOT appropriate lady-like behaviour & stopped doing it. yay!
i went to ride her yesterday but she was a bit sore in her back after saturday's shenanigans (not to mention 2 x hour long lessons) so i lunged her instead. she is an interesting lunger - i had her loose but she was very worked up from the 2stroke trail bikes hooning around on the property next door. apparently she and paul were once terrorised by a couple of them out in the bush & they circled them & stuff. how awful! poor baby.
then my lessee came so she had a mini-break whilst i signed paper work & showed emily my gear etc.
then back into the round pen. i put her in a couple of side reins (very loose) and we just did about 10mins of w/t/c both ways. she's obviously been free-lunged her whole life cos she turns in to face & cuts in etc. but she worked quite nicely once we had a lil discussion about personal space.