Walli's good

I am so glad, this mare I've leased seems to be a very good citizen. Perfect for her beginner owner.


I worked on her mounting avoidance issue first. I taught her to move her hips away from a tapping dressage whip, and she got that really quick because, well, I could almost hear her thoughts, "I'm a GOOD girl, I don't need whips touching me!" so she learned quick and I had to do very little. She resisted, initially, moving *toward* me when I reached over her and tapped her outside hip, but she learned that too. And that's the critical one, cuz she swings away from you when you try to get on. I give her the rein signal first, standing in the mounting position, I put her nose to the outside, away from me, which helps bring her hip in, and I tap on her right hip until she moves into me. Eventually I'll be able to drop the whip altogether, this worked with Baasha when he was young. A simple outside rein will be her signal to move her hip toward the mounting stump/block/rock.

I lunged her, curious to see how she lunges, and she's just wonderful! I used a sandy roundpen in the shade of a bunch of privacy trees which is nice cuz the outdoor ring was full of riders. She didn't know "HO" until this day. But everytime I asked, and enforced it, and she finally stopped, looking at me curiously, like "What, geez!" I'd turn my body a little away, and look off to the distant pasture/whatever for 10 seconds. I heard her chewing on the bit, wondering what the heck my deal was. Then I'd turn to her, peer at her dappled hindquarters, and ask her to walk off again. Once she got the stopping down, we worked on reversing, which was just great, just like Baasha, she knows all about reversing. Woo, so easy!

I was so thrilled that she's not one of those horses who've learned to just take off trotting/cantering on the lunge out of habit cuz lunging is just for wearing them down. She actually walked off at the start. That was such a relief for me. That meant we could just get to work on training. It was beautiful. When I finally asked her to trot, she sprang forward and tucked her butt underneath her. Of course she tossed her head at me, expressing herself, "No Workie!" But we don't have to work on that, she's got it, so we went back to walk/stop/walk/reverse/stop/walk/reverse until it was almost a dance. I must have said "GOOD GIRL" a hundred times, and laughed at her a lot, too.

She's a little uncertain, she doesn't know me, and I'm really different than her owner, and perhaps everyone else, I don't know.

I was so happy with her willingness, I walked her back to the barn and put my helmet on and listened to someone tell me where the trails are, again. It sounds like there are many options.

I rode out, pretty confident. She's gimpy on the rocks so I'll be bringing my Easyboot Bares and I've informed her owner she needs hoof protection of some kind. Her owner said of course, whatever she needs, to go out comfortably. The good thing is, our mutual contact is my barefoot trimmer and she carries many brands of boots to let her clients transition to barefoot. We’ll find something that works.

We got pretty far on those rocks before I finally had to turn around. I was on the ground the entire way out. I stopped every so often and practiced "bring your hip toward me" and even put my foot in the stirrup while doing so.

Finally I tried to get on, and she wanted to walk off. I simply turned her sideways so that her path was blocked by bushes, and got on, made her stand still for a few moments, let her eat, and then asked her to move off. If walking off during mounting is a problem, I know how to fix that – offer a treat after mounting so the horse thinks about reaching around for the treat and not walking off. That may sound like bribery but it works for me and in a pleasant way.

I made sure she just walked all the way home. If she has running off issues, I want to change her frame of mind to just walking until I’m sure she’s not gonna try it. Someone said she also likes to resist by running backwards, that’s no good, but I’m not worried because I’m establishing myself as a leader and I don’t think she’ll test me like she might her owner. For example even when I’m leading her, I’m insisting that she stay right where I want her and not lag behind me. This is where my nice long NH line helps: ) We’ll see what new challenges we face as I get to know her.

Tonight I will go out after work and try another trail, one we geocached before. It’s a great feeling to be riding a horse where I’ve gone geocaching. Kind of soothes the pain of all those hikes where we encountered riders.