Interesting ride today. Its very windy, a bit warmer, and all the leaves are off the trees, so things look a good bit different. I started riding but even though Yankee was walking OK, he was tense and.. grunting. I know what that means, so I got the lunge line... And yes, he had a lot of bucks in him. Worked him on the lunge for maybe 10 minutes, until he was listening and no longer wanted to buck. Noted that to the left, he switches behind a lot, but to the right he keeps a proper canter/gallop... Anyway, after buck removal, got back on. Usually, when we work in his pasture, I leave the gate open. However, in case I missed some bucks, to be safe, I latched the gate behind us. He was reasonably good, but in the interests of safety decided not to ride on the cattle property today. We worked on a good even cadenced gaits, good halts, and some lateral work. And! We worked the gate. Now, weve fiddled with gates in the past, but nothing serious. We hadnt successfully both opened and closed one. Today changed that. He understood! I had him stand quietly by the latch for a minute... then we opened the gate toward him. Pretty nicely for a horse thats never done this before, we got the gate open, shoulder and hip moves to get around the end, and a nice sidepass to close the gate, with one last step with the hip to allow the gate to close... backed up so I could latch it and - VOILA!~ We successfully completed our first gate! I am so proud of him! He got lots of praise and a good long break for that. We then went into the forest for a ride, since he does need to get used to the wind and movement. No reaction to the nice buck that took off as we began. He was really good, even with the sound of a chainsaw getting closer. We stopped while I looked to see where the guy was... Yankee (and I!) did jump when the tree being cut suddenly fell (guy was a lot closer than I thought!), but he didnt take off and there were no airs above ground after that hop. We turned around and walked back - he was up on his toes but listening, and the rest of the ride was uneventful. I am very happy with Yankees progress. Its certainly slower than it would be if I handed him over to a pro, but he has good ground manners, will ground tie, will lead at liberty, I have countrol of his shoulders and his hips, his transitions are improving, as are his stops. All that, I did myself. Theres a certain pride in having a responsive, well behaved horse and being able to say, everything he knows, Ive taught him!
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 18:48:15 +0000
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