First groundwork lesson with Ani and Susanne

Today Ani and I shared a lesson with her trainer Susanne, who's given me two lessons in the past.

I'm still not sure what I think of Susanne but riding instructors are scarce so we'll see. She was certainly right in her assessment that Mag may never be OK with loud rain jackets - she had me practice with jackets regularly, which I did several times per week, and he is no better now than months ago, even with jackets hung up in his stall over his hay. Recently I walked into the stall, rustled the rump rug and he shot backwards in an honest spook. It might be like some people don't like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard. I'm totally fine with that sound, strangely. But Mag's brain cannot handle certain fabrics and Susanne said to let it go, if he didn't improve. She told me about an accident she had riding a TB where the wind rustled her rain coat. The horse ran off, fell down putting her in the hospital and the horse had to be euthanized. She's not gonna push any horse to "just get over it."

I'd set up obstacles in the woods by the bench were there is a somewhat level intersection which gives us about 10 meters to work, but we both wanted to work in the brush and over fallen trees. It was Susanne's first time meeting Rudi and she very graciously asked me if it's OK if she gives Ani an assessment. Of course. She told me to do what I'd normally do. I love that freedom! I took Mag into the brush and made him go INTO the Holly bushes (which really hurt) with his rump rug thrown over his saddle, which was quite loud with the brush scraping it.

She told me he's doing great with it, it's no problem. I said, "He's not happy about it, but he's controlling himself." He would cock his head to the side to keep an eye on it, and often had one ear back on it.

I had my dressage/groundwork whip today and a pocketful of mineral bricks. These two things made Mag extremely keen today and it was really fun maneuvering him around and pausing on downhill slopes and then making him back back up those slopes, even over fallen trees. Susanne was really surprised when she saw him go backwards up that slope over a tree, she said, "That is something we cannot ask Rudi to do, with her arthritis." Then I told her, within hearing of Ani, how Ani is super protective of the 21 year old mare, how she won't even make the mare cross that big fallen tree.

Susanne told Ani to be much, much firmer with the mare, which was a relief cuz the mare does a lot of barging into Ani despite the rope halter. She cut a branch off a tree as a whip for Ani and told her to whack her with it, "In contrast to the Arabian, who moves his hip over when she just *looks* at it!"

At one point I asked Mag to back up and he was so sharp he backed with very little cue from me. Susanne said, "That was really good! Beautiful!" I thought, yah, when I've got a whip in my hand Mag knows it's gonna tap his forelegs!  Then I tattled on Ani, telling Susanne that last week Rudi bit Ani when Ani asked her to back out of her space. Susanne said the mare is probably in pain, but that's no excuse to bite. Ani was relieved, she told me afterwards, that her suspicions were correct, and that the mare has body pain and stiffness which makes it hard to work with her.

She had Ani do a trot-out and I I saw three lame steps but Susanne did not. Hrm.

Then I had to show off - it's Mag's favorite thing so I took him trotting and back and Mag got a little too excited with his head tossing and prancing. Susanne said "And there goes the Arabian, with that tail!" I was cracking up cuz Mag was so happy.

I spent some time at the bench, leaning over Mag's back thumping the saddle and his rump and side, and Susanne came over to hold Mag for me to make it easier. Suddenly Mag would not go up to the bench. I told her it's because he thinks SHE might get on him, and he won't allow it. She said, "It's fine, Arabs have their people."

Ani and I both worked on turns on haunches and forehand, and the former is really rough for me. I'm not really a ground work person, you can tell.

But Susanne had a ton of praise for me regarding my ground work, which is nice to hear, but makes me wonder if she knows what she's talking about.

She said, "You've got this ground work thing down! Your horse is attuned to you and understands everything you ask him! It's obvious you've spent a lot of time working on this stuff."

I told her sheepishly, "I do spend a lot of time on the ground." But I don't think of it as ground work, I think of it as me telling Mag where I want him and he understands. Lately he's been backing up when I ask him to move his hips over and he doesn't seem to get the difference if he's loose.

I have to say, sharing a lesson with someone is nice. I got to do what I wanted whenever Ani was working, including just watching what they are learning. I do not like the price. I know it doesn't sound like much but  27E per person for one hour seems like a lot to me, considering a private lesson is 32E.

Again I'm not sure I trust the expertise of the trainer, which is something that never used to happen to me. I guess I've just had a lot of really crappy ones in Germany, so I am cautious.

Sorry I have no images from this week - but I did find a pretty (probably photoshopped) picture by photographer Visel. She's really good.