Eryn visits again!

Friday night I was cleaning up poop in my pasture and looked through the foggy humidity and sweat-streaked glasses and saw two people walking toward me through the long wet grass. It was Eryn and Sven! I wasn’t sure they were coming over.

 

Eryn was wearing horse-appropriate clothing this time, she looked just like all the other tall skinny ladies around here in breeches, just taller. (Every time I go to the grocery store there is at least one person wearing breeches, and since I often ride bareback in baggy shorts, I look like scum in comparison when I have to go shopping after riding.)

This time I had a game plan, I’d actually written my goals down on paper.

But I was intensely curious if we could reintroduce Mara to the crupper again, and what Eryn’s analysis would be.

And Eryn wanted to show me an attention-getting tool for when Mara is distracted. This turned out to be the Parelli “crouch and glare at the horse’s hip” to get the horse to disengage and face you. I’m sorry but it just looks so humorous to me when people crouch and peer at their horses’ butts! It seems to work though: she gives both eyes and both ears, and interestingly, when Eryn went to the other side to try it, Mara somehow transferred and disengaged immediately when crouched at. Maybe she has one brain and not two. Hm.

I’m not very good at it, and I’m trying to figure out if it’s an important thing to practice. It kind of contradicts my lunging cue where I peer at her hip to get her to move forward. But she is smart enough to know the difference between classical lunging and Parelli games. Do any of you have horses who do both?

Then we rode her around, taking turns, on the bareback pad with the Vosal because she’d had a tooth out recently. The Vosal might have been the reason she did a lot of head tossing, but we figured out that the head tossing is a bluff to get out of work, to intimidate the rider, cuz she’ll head fling with a halter as well.

I want her to learn to back up lightly and willingly, and we’ve got a long way to go. Slight vibrations on the reins, telling her BACK, even having a person on the ground helping, she starts to fidget and toss and even started to rear three times. I’ll be doing this a lot more from the ground I can see. (I don’t go for that rope-wiggling stuff because how does that transfer to under saddle?)

I had silly little goals like “stand over a cavaletti without moving” and begin turn on haunches/forehand and stand still 10 seconds under saddle. I also wanted to trot a 10 meter circle around Eryn without stopping, both directions. Strange how hesitant Mara  is, that’s my fault I’m sure.

Then the crupper came on. Again she reacted very violently, rodeoing on the lunge with her hind feet straight up in the air. But Eryn talked to her the entire time, and eventually brought her down to a trot until she “forgot” about it and lifted her tail even. Then Eryn got her even slower and discovered she has a lovely jog, a jog that naturally encouraged her to stretch her head down to the ground repeatedly. Or maybe her back hurt after all that bucking, but it was really lovely. Also, with no inertia to help pull her along, a much better physical exercise than extended trotting.

***

Two days later I did a repeat of this session, and got the same results. Lots of bucking – actually, she galled herself bloody under her tail! – but finally a relaxed jog as she gave up and dealt with the offending tack.

Some lady at Herr S’s saw part of the rodeo and asked me why I was putting a crupper on her. I said, “Funny, out of all the horses I’ve ridden, this one needs a crupper the most, and this one hates it.” (And I was reminded of the German magazine article about how cruppers are damaging to your horse’s spine. *cough*)

Two ladies there are doing their first “LD” next Saturday. And pretty much every day I think about how excited they must be to set their feet in the sport. I saw Nadine had bought a new HRM for her paintabian. I was gonna lend her mine but it seems to have disappeared. Probably still in my old horse trailer in Maple Valley.

I was also daydreaming, thinking that in a year I might be able to do an LD with Mara, but it certainly won’t be a 10 or 15 miler – I would never want to give her the impression that endurance is something easy.

Then I put the easyboots on and went out into the woods, with bareback pad and halter only. Oh boy. But I accomplished my goal, from the point I got on, stay on the entire loop, up and down those hills, over the creek, and all the way back up to the shepherd’s house of horrors, where I (of course) got off. His is the first house you come across as you ride from the woods to our village.

Mara was quite spooky but I had my fingers in the breastcollar for help on hills, and said “WALK ON” through things like stumps and rocks that were perhaps used in horse-sacrifice rituals in medieval times.

However at one point I could not get her to hold still, as I tried to tie my lead rope onto the pad. She was “up” and couldn’t stand at all. I jumped off, yelled at her, and looked at my watch. We stood there 3 long minutes, with Mara apologetically statue-still. Then I got back on, came back to that exact spot, and asked her to halt again. Thank God, she did it. She somehow got it, and stood there for me. Then we went on, stopped again, counted a few seconds, and repeat. We are really gonna work on this patience thing, something I never really did with Baasha.

Star Island (Standie) and Ibn (grade Arab) went by with two ladies (?) on them. I know Star Island has been doing endurance rides lately, I just had no idea that the owner, JS, has other people helping him condition. I get it though, he’s pretty old. Those ladies did not just stare at me, they gawked totally unabashedly at my face, trying to figure out who the heck I am when they did not recognize my horse. It’s a known fact that Germans stare (check the expat sites for proof), but these ladies’ staring was really intense. As soon as they passed, Mara turned to follow them, and I said, “No” and she turned back around.

Then we made it up this technical muddy, rooty single track with switchbacks and it was great fun. That is the same one she slid drunkenly down a few weeks ago.

I accomplished my goal. Past the shepherd’s house, I got off and let her graze. Two Herr S boarders caught up with me and Mara nickered cuz she knows those horses, cute.

Now that I’ve done that big loop alone with a bareback pad and halter, I am excited about trying it again, and enjoying it more. The times she said, “I cannot” she learned she can.

Progress feels good.

P.S. Thanks to the people who nominated me for the Liebster Blog award - how cute, it's German! I don't participate in those, even though I enjoy reading other people's answers.