wind and rain...

I decided to have a play and ride regardless of the weather today, the ride being dependent on Cam's state of 'rb-ness' -she does not like wind OR rain!!
Online we played with OLP 1,4, and 6 to see what we had. (6 is circling..know what the others are??) She was quite'up' and spooky,but it didn't look unrideable. In fact, I suprised myself by thinking - 'oh, at least she'll have some go, I wonder how well I can keep her attention when she isn't 110% LB...'. I have noticed she goes rb but then usually comes fairly quickly back to lb now (in seconds) , a big change from how she used to be when it was snorting and passaging or flat out canter with tail in the air (and possibly falling over) for several minutes after each episode of rb,or sometimes it was 10 minutes or so, and I'd never dream of riding her on that day ..hmm we have come a long way..

I got on and she wasn't 100% relaxed, but more so than on line - how interesting..I've also noticed recently she is more relaxed usually when I'm onboard and pressing into her neck with one hand passenger style than how she is online if I keep her away from me. She is most relaxed online next to me. We did some figure of eights OLP2 but just all in walk, to see how she was. The answer was quite tense when she had her back to the trees,and once she scooted off a bit,but again nothing like she used to - no massive sideways leap and panicked run (but I did stay in the 'safe' end of the arena -I wasn't going to push her too much-want to keep the right side of the 'edges' between the comfort zone-and over the edge...(or hedge!!). She jumped into a sudden sideways trot, and to my suprise my reaction was to go for one rein not to pull back on two,but I did tense up and felt myself come up out of the saddle but I could actually think 'relax....' thats' another first - previously to my shame it has been grab and hang on!! We moved into a trot figure of eight which I thought for me was quite brave on a day like today, and she had another spook but I was able to direct it and didn't have to stop. After a few circuits we came down to a walk and did some carrot stick riding. All in all - not the smoothest session and not on an entirely casual rein most of the time but we have both grown in confidence. She was much more relaxed in walk and was able to stop relaxed with her back to the trees, so we did a bit of backing and sideways and I hopped off, and gave her a carrot! What a brave girl she was!

Then I put the halter on Rafiki, who was desperate to do something. It had stopped raining by now but not an ideal day to ride her when we haven't done that much, so we focussed on OLP4 - figure of eight at trot. She did some good circuits and then suggested she'd like to do something with poles.She was asking did I want her to go sideways over ( I haven't taught her this yet...) or put her foot on or straddle it! She is SO sensitive -why did I ever think she was dull?? I also need to keep my energy down,even more so than I had to with Cam - it takes so little for her to trot or get upset. This is the first time she has really offered so much and her own ideas. She wasn't spooky at all,even though it started to pour and get squally - far too busy trying to read me and interact..wow. So we finished with a few good circles with a lovely attitude from her (but I realised my 'send' is still diabolical - too wish washy)

Rain had stopped again so I put the halter on Merlot. I have not done much with him at all but he is so 'stuck' to me that I felt he wanted to do something. Usually I have to be very fresh mentally and full of ideas or he runs rings around me. I realised straight away I didn't have a good enough plan - as my send is bad he wouldn't/couldn't get the idea of OLP 2 figure of eights. Se we went awayand practiced driving - that soon improved it. I thought - he needs to learn something new so we put the driving game to practice and did some sideways along the fence. He decided he would not yield his hq so I asked nicely again and gave a loooooong ph 1 with no response, so I went straight to a good ph 4. He wasn't upset but he did move his hq over (not his fq..didn't want to run off...) then turned and looked at me and licked and chewed a lot. When he had finished I drove his fq with no problem,as before on a ph2, then I just looked at his hq - they moved very smartly!! So we did a few more steps then finished, both of us very wet. That horse really thinks and weighs things up.....it is easy to turn him intro though so I need to be creative and get my send more effective for everyone.

Poor Shiraz is lame - I think she has an abcess brewing as invariably someone gets one when we have wet soil then suddenly it dries up then goes wet again. So she practiced wearing a soaking boot-far too big for her tiny hoof but she was a star and didn't worry -first time she's had one on.It looked like a great big gumboot - would take a pic but was far too wet! The rain filled it with a bit of water while she was wearing it.