Go Go Girl

Ahhhh, now that I have my stupid specialty exam behind me (I took it Friday. All day Friday. Ugh), I can now get back to avoiding cleaning my house by writing my blog instead of worrying about my exam. Not that my minor worrying about the exam made me study for the exam, but it did distract me.

But I am back, and I am back in the saddle on my girl. Something Buck Brannaman said at his clinic struck a chord with me.  He said groundwork is important, and we should not neglect it, if we need it, but we shouldn't hide behind it either. We can only get so far on the ground before we have to get on. So I made a vow now that she is sound again that I need to ride her more and get back to the progress we had made before I went to camp.

So I have been riding her, and having a hell of a good time. I rode her on a Sunday afternoon, and though she was really ready to go, and wanted to trot and not walk, we reached an agreement early on in the ride that I was going to let her trot, but if she wanted to work, we would work. So we did figure eights, we did big circles, we did small circles, we did serpentines and went over ground poles. We did a clover leaf around barrels and we stopped and backed up and started trotting again. After all that, I asked for, and got a nice walk around the arena. And when I got off, she followed me just like a puppy out of the arena and into the barn.

The following Tuesday however, was a whole 'nother story. There was a nip in the air and a slight wind, and all the horses seemed riled up. I did a little lunging but not much because the arena had two lessons with beginners going on, and these two new sweeties were in the round pen:

Meet Copper and Winston, new additions to the
barn membership program. Yes, as a matter of fact they are
awesome.

Even though that girlfriend was a little touchy, I didn't want to hide behind my groundwork, and frankly it was just a beautiful night to ride, so I got on. Well, that red mare was READY TO GO. She wanted to trot almost immediately, but I kept her from trotting for at least a little while, then I just let her go. And she was going fast, and unlike recently, she hollowed her back again and had her head up and had none of the nice rhythm we'd had. Okay, though, I posted slower and put her in circles and figure eights, but finally went down the straightaway on the rail, and she just burst into a fast canter, and leaned in around the curve. She was on the correct lead and actually on her weak side, so I had to admire her spirit (and let's face it, fast is fun!), but I couldn't have her cantering around like a mad thing, thinking she could ignore me. So I brought her back down to a trot and worked in smaller and smaller circles moving her feet around, then finally getting a nice relaxed walk before calling it a night. I was a little discouraged, but all the horses were in a weird mood. I remembered the first days of fall at the barn where I grew up riding and how all the horses would run around in the pasture, so I decided not to let it bother me. And though she was feisty, then, as always, I never felt like she was trying to get rid of me. She just wanted her own way. Which is something I can understand even if I can't let her get away with it.

Here she is after being a wild thing.
Don't be fooled by that sweet expression.
She is not actually an angel in a horse suit.
Or so Sara tells me.

As it turns out, I was right not to overreact. (Sadly, overreacting is rarely the right thing to do, even though it is so nice and easy to do.) When I rode Skye again over that next weekend, she wanted to go, but not so badly that she didn't want to listen. Then on Tuesday I rode again, and I had one of the best rides I've ever had on her. She relaxed her head and neck much more, contained her trot to a nice easy rhythm and was very responsive to my leg and did not avoid nor lean into my light contact. Bravo, I thought, then quit while I was ahead.

Scarface. Who else could have scars front and center
like that and still be so beautiful?

And, as it happened that night, Craig was riding the beautiful Symphony that night. Symphony is a gorgeous and very well-trained American Warmblood who Erin bought to save for a girl to buy back one day. She is a great horse, and only advanced folks can ride her. I remarked that I'd like to ride her trot some time, since it is legendary for being so smooth. Craig said "do it now!"  So I said yes! And I hopped up on that pretty girl and walked a little and trotted a little. And her trot is amazingly smooth, and much easier to sit than to post to. This cannot be sad about my girl's trot. Yet, I did have to keep Symphony going. It didn't take much, but still, it made me miss the willingness to go forward that Skye has.  Symphony was great, but I still like my girl better. Shocking news.