Another Day

I intended to ride Chance today, but my hip and back were hurting a lot when I got to the ranch, so I decided just to lunge Brandy today. It was a short lessen, but a good one. I shortened the side reins a little more and Brandy collected more than she has before. After I put her away, as I was walking by his stall, Chance nickered at me. I couldn't resist. I went into his stall and rubbed his face. He played with my hand and my sweatshirt with his lip. I felt so bad and almost pulled him out to ride him, but my hip was hurting more from turning around in a circle for 45 minutes. Next time. I miss that little guy.

Tarp? No Problem

Last week the round-pen was occupied. This week it was empty of horses, but full of mud and it was raining. Debbie's trainer was working horses in the arena, so I dilly-dallied a little with Brandy. I saddled her, then unsaddled her, then put her circingle on. By that time, two of the horses had been put away, so I rebuilt my "round-pen" and took Brandy for a lunging session. She did really well and I noticed a tiny bit of improvement in her holding her head.
The most exciting part of the day came when I had the genius idea to have Brandy walk over the tarp that was on the ground. We've never done this before, so I really just thought she would get a couple feet away from it and then balk. However, as I inched carefully onto the tarp, she followed, She snorted a little, but then followed me all the way across! I was ecstatic and we went in for another try. This time, her back foot got caught under the tarp. In the time that it takes you to blink, she lunged forward, pushed me down and I landed on my right hip (again). I saw her bolting for her stall and gripped the lunge-line tighter. I completely expected her to ignore the tug I gave the line. Instead, she spun around and looked at me with alarm as I regarded her with some sarcasm in my look. I praised her for not bolting completely, then we went over the tarp again without incident.
I want you all to know that this is HUGE! Tarps are terrifying. They're crinkly and move weird when they catch on everything and they're loud. Brandy walked across TWICE like she's been doing it for years (maybe she has and nobody told me). I'm very happy about this lessen.

Resourceful Round-Pen

When I discovered how much easier it was to work with Brandy in the round-pen than in the huge arena, I couldn't wait to get out to the ranch yesterday...only to find that a new member of Debbie's mustang family was living in it. Having been raised to be resourceful, I built my own with two jumps, four cones, and a barrel. It worked quite well. Brandy didn't even try to get out! I'm going to revise what I said last week about her liking to work in a round-pen. I don't think she necessarily likes it, she just works better in it (perhaps that's why, she knows she has to work). I warmed her up and then went to tack her up. What a delightful surprise to find the cirsingle (I'm not sure how to spell that) had come home! It's so much nicer to work with side-reins that are actually...side-reins. I've said before that Brandy doesn't like side-reins (what horse does?), but until she learns to carry her head collected on her own, she's going to have to put up with it. She did very well and I was very satisfied with the lessen for that day.

Round Pen

Brandy and I discovered the round pen behind the barn. For several reasons, we've never been able to get out there and use it before now. First it was being occupied by another horse, then it was wet and rainy and muddy, and then I forgot about it. I was lunging Brandy with side reins today (she hates them) and telling myself that there had to be an easier way to teach a horse to bend and be able to stay in one place while lunging. "A round pen is what I need," I said to myself. Then I recalled that there was one outside and that it was unoccupied and probably not too muddy! We went out there and discovered the large but not massive round pen. Brandy liked it. I think she likes having a little bit of confinement. I had Brandy trot around for awhile to get used to the round pen and then she didn't seem to want to stop, so I just let her keep going. When she was done I asked her for a lope. She did, but she still thinks she's in trouble when she lopes. Then I tightened the side reins and she did pretty good with that. I took the lunge line off and it was pretty cool the way she went in a circle and obeyed without a line attached to me. At first, I don't think she noticed When I took off the side reins and the lunge line she figured it out because there was nothing on her face.
I think we both enjoyed the round pen a lot more. It was workable, but confined, and there were no distractions such as her empty stall beckoning her to run back to it. All the focus was on me...which is the way I like it.

FUN!

FUN was the word of the day. Chance made it very clear from the beginning that he didn't want to work. Rather, he wanted to play. He almost trotted up to me when I went to get him from his stall. While I groomed and saddled him he fidgeted a bit more than usual. When we walked into the arena, he lunged forward, then spun around when he came to the end of the reins. I had my hand through the reins so he came to a quick stop, pulling me a couple feet and slamming the gate closed. I felt really sorry for his mouth. When he repeated the action a few times, I decided to lunge him before riding him. I was hoping for a dead run followed by a few bucks. No such luck. Still, playing was the focus of our session, while trying to incorporate a little training in there. We worked on my roping skills a bit, and Chance kept his head down pretty well. Then we loped very quickly around the arena which was tons of fun! Chance is extremely athletic. Normally I ask him to canter collected, but decided against it today. We worked a little on lead changes and he did pretty well. Then I thought we'd run some barrels and try to change our leads doing that. That didn't quite work out the way that I wanted, but it was still fun. For a grand finale, I let Chance chase his giant toy ball around the arena. The smooth, rocking pace of his walk started putting me to sleep (is it a bad thing when you start to fall asleep on a horse), so we hung up the saddle for the day. It was a good day and I'm glad that Chance let me know what he wanted to do. I didn't work with Brandy because, like I said, I was falling asleep. I'll see her next week, though.

Makeshift Side-Reins

I lunged Brandy today with a saddle. Then I found some western split reins and made my own side reins. She's lost her bend, so we're going to be working on getting that back now. There was no bolting, but there was some stubbornness about wanting to be lunged. However, in the end, she did really well. She even dropped her head for a little while. She doesn't like side reins because she has to hold her head low instead of high, but she does pretty well with it.