It feels like it's been forever since I last posted even though this week has flown by. I've found that it's harder for me to post during summer because I'm busier - I have all the horses to ride, work and online classes. Plus the internet here at home is suuuper slow so posting is difficult, especially when I have to spend an hour uploading pictures!
Not much has been going on. After I got back from Inavale I felt really sick for two days. Today I felt 100% better and went to ride Jetta. That was fun. She was a complete and total brat, but that's what I get for abandoning her in the pasture for over a week! I had a tummy ache after riding her, so I decided to quit on a semi-good note and not push her too much farther. On our walk back up to the barn I had an allergy attack which confined me to the house until I got it under control. Having trouble breathing is not fun!
We rode around the pasture and she was actually not too, too terrible. She did pull on me a lot and threw in a few bucks when I asked her to canter, but it could have been a ton worse. Of course, with all of that pulling she did (and I did back) I got a massive blister between my middle and ring finger. Ouch. It hurts. What is with me and blisters?! This is my third one in less than a week, geez! But it's my fault for allowing Jetta to pull so much and for forgetting to wear my gloves.
The goal is to ride her every day until next Tuesday, when we head off to a three-day clinic. I'm beginning to feel some major doubts about my decision to sign up because of Jetta's behavior. I'm guessing I'm going to be among the minority - probably the only one with a half-trained Thoroughbred! Two girls I know are taking their FEI level, imported Warmbloods. Sigh... So jealous, I just have to keep reminding myself that I love my horse, I love my horse.
Somewhere in there Jetta's going to get a bath so she can get all pretty and then we need to work on our trailering skills. I'm thinking that is going to be a whole load of fun. It's not the getting in the trailer that's the problem, it's the tying and getting shut in with the divider that's the problem. I will come armed with a head-bumper. I promise I'll take pictures of her with it on because I'm sure she's going to look pretty hilarious with a "horse helmet" on. Heehee :) And we might even squeeze in a lesson with JF sometime this weekend, I hope. I also plan on taking up jumping lessons again with RC, but this summer I will be riding Jetta. That's kind of a scary thought... but I'm really looking forward to developing Jetta into a jumping horse, especially since we now have Inavale to look forwards to next year!
Well, I promise I'll try to post more often!
Now see, that just bothers me. People go out and spend a ton of money on a horse so they can say, "see my fancy warmblood, he can do FEI!" Did you train that horse? "Well no." Can you ride FEI? "No." Personally I'm more impressed by the person who brings out their grade that they trained to second level. I know there's a place for using schoolmasters so you can learn how the movement feels but if you never teach the movement you're missing a fundamental piece of dressage. Of course that's just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteDon't pull back or you'll be stuck in that tug of war forever. Experiment using one rein at a time to get her to release her jaw. Horses can't pull on one rein as easily as they can pull on two. That's one reason why I'm learning how to do it.
Anyway, diatribe over.
Haha, sorry, I love your rant. I agree though - it's a lot different when you have to teach a horse to do something rather than just ask for it. And of course these two girls are younger than me and I'm sure they'll someday end up on the international dressage circuit. I definitely am more impressed by the riders that you can see put a lot of work into their horse and can stick to them even when their horses do throw a tantrum without getting mad, versus the riders with pushbutton horses. It makes me mad when people see a horse misbehaving and then automatically reach the conclusion that the rider isn't very good. Sure, there is the cause and effect between rider and horse, but there's other reasons too.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know better than to pull, she was just such a fireball yesterday! We ended up doing some jaw flexions at the walk, then lots and lots of serpentines and circles to get her brain focused and so she couldn't use both reins to pull. I think we may have looked a little drunken weaving our way around the pasture :)