I had a wonderful line drive today with Shyloh. It was sprinkling on and off, but that did not stop us. I really wanted to get a feel for the new bit we got.
I think it was a success. Shy was relaxed, had her head down, and was blowing out a ton. And at the end, we had foamy mouth!
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| You really can not see foam here, but it is there. |
Shy was against me taking a good photo of foamy mouth. I think she did not want to admit that she liked the bit.
After our regular testing period, which lasted much shorter than normal, Shy was stopping and standing like she had no where to go. We did a bunch of weaving through trees. Then we went to the tires to weave. The tires are set much closer together, so I have to work on timing my line aids. While we were working on this a horse got loose from the pasture. It was the gray Arab, one of Shy's pasture mates.
He was entirely too happy to be free (hey, it's not like he has acres of pasture of run through all day). He was running like a mad man throughout the farm and people where chasing him. There were people riding horses, people hand walking horses, and me line driving Shy. It could have been disastrous!
But I was so happy with how calmly Shy handled the whole situation. The Arab ran right by us more than once, running in true Arab fashion. I stayed behind Shy and cued her to face whatever way he would be coming from. The only grief Shy gave me was trying to get closer to the gate of her pasture, since we where close to that. But she was not phased by the run away horse and commotion. Win!
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| To the woods! |
After the horse was caught, we continued weaving the tires, then went into the arena. I wanted to give Shy a chance to trot, so I lunged her at the trot in each direction. We also worked on fanning, since I know I needed to work on my line cues. I think it went well!
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| Hug and kisses, itches and scratches |
When we were done, I gave Shy her good job peppermint then put her back with her herd. She let me hug on her and scratch her itchy head and neck (from the massive amounts of shedding). But when a horse got too close to us, Shy let them know to back off!
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| Shy says "Go away, this is MY Allie!" |
This weekend is Equine Affaire! I can barely contain my excitement! Who is going?
Raising hand, I'm going to EA too. Will be there Sat & Sun. Can't wait for Fantasia!!! Not going to be doing nearly the amount of shopping this year. I'll still have a blast though :)
ReplyDeleteAre you going to Fantasia Sat? We will be there on that day! We should meet! I know they are having the Haflinger demo at 2:45, I'll be there for sure!
DeleteI don't plan on shopping much, I am more than happy to bask in the glory of all the horses :)
Foamy mouth is good! That sounds like a by productive training session.
ReplyDeleteIt was. I like it when unexpected things happen, like loose horses, so we can work on that and get used to the unexpected.
DeleteWow, I really like the new bit. Sounds like Shy likes it :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like great work - you've been inspired by the weekend!
ReplyDeleteI have! I really want to be able to drive Shy. So tons of more hard work is in order.
DeleteNew bit! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteI aint goin', not since they decided to do away with the CA Equine Affaire. *muttermutter*
I got Buck Brannaman instead though. :D
Lucky on Buck :)
DeleteBut you should try to make a trip out one year. It is amazing!!
I've been to EA so I know how awesome it is. ;) California's event was pretty darned awesome, despite the fact they chose to have it Super Bowl weekend, so Sunday was all but deserted.
DeleteCouldn't afford to go all the way to Ohio or MA just for a weekend. And I told that to the people at EA when they were telling us CA folk we should do that.
I wonder why they don't do it out there? You would think there would be more than enough people who would go!
DeleteShy is so cute! Glad you had a good work!
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
DeleteI am thinking I like this bit. I can change the leverage as needed, so my hope is eventually to have the reins in the big circle and not have leverage. As of now, Shy was very responsive to the extra bit of leverage.