Crazy mare!

It's been raining here, off and on moisture, not a torrential downpour, but off and on showers with patches of sunshine inbetween. It's been nice, things had been getting waaaay too dry here, so the moisture is much desired. Last night we had our first real thunderstorm, hurray!!! Today dawned clear as a bell with the sun shining brightly, they are calling for more thunderstorms this afternoon. Everything is getting green now with the rain, and it's lovely.



A beautiful evening on the farm from a few days ago

 Yesterday evening I decided to put in a quick ride on Callie mare, my plan was to do trot sets... that didn't exactly go as planned!! For starters I forgot my watch, oh well, I figured I'd just do X number of trot laps around the arena instead of timing my trot sets. Well, yeah... the ride ended up turning into a "You listen to me or else, and you go FORWARD or else!" lesson. Oy vey!


You see those horse eating goblins? Do you SEE them?!
RIGHT THERE! Horse eating!!!

Right from the git-go she was spooking at that... that stupid metal trough-turned-flower-planter. Spun on me walking down the drive, and then we walked past it one way inside the arena and she was fine, went to go walk past it the other way, and all hell broke loose! She spooked and spun, nearly unseating me. Then she just flat out refused to go anywhere near it undersaddle. I'd kick, she'd pin her ears, toss her head, swish her tail and try and spin again. Bad girl!! I was sooooo wishing I had a riding crop to reinforce my point. It went something like this:

Me: Kick, kick, kick. "Get over there"
Callie: "Nooooooo!!"
Me: Kick, KICK "GEEEITT!"
Callie: "But it's SCAAARRY"

I finally got off and dragged her over to the fence and made her STAND by the thing. Then I got on and walked teeny tiny circles, hurray for bending. Lots and lots of leg, a couple butt smacks, and she was finally in front of my leg. I think a lot of these spooking issues with her is that she is just not forward, cuz I know she's not scared, she'll walk by something just fine with me leading her, under saddle it's another story. I eventually progressed to larger walk and trot circles, my goal was to trot a nice quiet circle on a longer rein and lower frame, aka relaxed!

That was not to be, once she figured out I didn't have much rein contact she took advantage of it, spooking out of nowhere and spinning, she nearly got me off!!! I thought for sure I was going to eat dirt, not only did she spin but she started doing this hoppy thing with her front end, bouncing back and forth throwing a major hissy fit over the whole ordeal. Once I regained my balance it was back to trotting, this time with a much shorter rein, a very forward trot, and an incredible amount of flexion to the inside clearly telling her "you pay attention to me!"

Managed to end on a good note, and I hopped off her right away and hand-walked her to cool her out. Looking back, I guess I deserved it. She'd had the day off prior, and I decided to try riding her without lunging first... on a hot little mare, not such a good idea lol. Oh well, it was a good lesson, and the forward one that must be learned. I swear though, I sound like a pirate when I ride this mare LOL, I growl at her a lot when she feels like she's starting to do something, combined with a strong leg, it normally works.



Silly mare, we'll figure each out soon... hopefully

 So, I'll leave you with that for now. Have a good day, on Good Friday :)