kteufel
08-22-2007, 03:39 AM
This weekend my mare Nena finally came home after a two month "tune up" at the trainer (Vickie McQuinn at De Los Mejores ranch.) I got her settled in Saturday evening, then came back Sunday to play around with her. We rode in the round pen for half an hour, then I untacked and let her roll and hang out to get to know the other horses over the fence. After awhile of that, I hand-walked her down the road to find the trail head, which took about half an hour, too.
Monday I came out again straight after work and we went on our first trail ride in our new location! My friend came along, hand-walking another horse. Nena was good overall past the cars, bikers, joggers, and dog walkers. We only got into two arguments, both about the same subject--standing still while your horse buddy keeps walking ahead. She lead for most of the trail ride and so getting "left behind" was not something she agreed with.
The first time, I had asked her to halt shortly after leaving the trail head on the way home, to let a car pass by before I could get to the side of the road. My friend kept walking on ahead and Nena immediately started to fret and prance. Being that we were on the side of a busy road, I never got quite the behavior I wanted, but I got some semblance of self control before letting her move on. I was worried she'd try something stupid and get in the way of traffic. In any case, we made it back without incident, until we were about twenty feet from the gate to the barn area. I asked her to halt in the driveway so I could dismount. Not only did my friend already go through the gate with her horse, but I was asking Nena to stop *so tantalizingly close* to the sacred barn! She again thought this was totaly unreasonable, only this time we were in a much safer area to "argue."
My goal was to get her to stand quietly long enough for me to reward her by dismounting. She tried just about everything except the really stupid stuff--no rearing or spinning--but she tried standing and pawing, prancing in place, fussing and pulling on the reins, backing up. Everything earned her a calm, swift, firm response from me until I got her to stand long enough to warrant me kicking my feet out of the stirrups. This started another round of more half-hearted protests, and finally I got another stand long and quiet enough for me to get off. Hopefully she learned the lesson!
Even though the ride didn't go perfectly, overall she was quite pleasant and it was confidence-building to have things get a little unpleasant and still work until I got the response I wanted. She is in season right now which I think is part of her herdish urgency, besides the fact that she is in a new place.
Anyway, here are some photos from Sunday:
Rolling after a workout
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/kteufel/nena/NenaRoll.jpg
Checking out Daisy the draft cross
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/kteufel/nena/Nenainroundpen.jpg
Nena in the woods when we found the trail head
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/kteufel/nena/NenaFace.jpg
Nena's new digs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/kteufel/nena/Nenaspaddock.jpg
Monday I came out again straight after work and we went on our first trail ride in our new location! My friend came along, hand-walking another horse. Nena was good overall past the cars, bikers, joggers, and dog walkers. We only got into two arguments, both about the same subject--standing still while your horse buddy keeps walking ahead. She lead for most of the trail ride and so getting "left behind" was not something she agreed with.
The first time, I had asked her to halt shortly after leaving the trail head on the way home, to let a car pass by before I could get to the side of the road. My friend kept walking on ahead and Nena immediately started to fret and prance. Being that we were on the side of a busy road, I never got quite the behavior I wanted, but I got some semblance of self control before letting her move on. I was worried she'd try something stupid and get in the way of traffic. In any case, we made it back without incident, until we were about twenty feet from the gate to the barn area. I asked her to halt in the driveway so I could dismount. Not only did my friend already go through the gate with her horse, but I was asking Nena to stop *so tantalizingly close* to the sacred barn! She again thought this was totaly unreasonable, only this time we were in a much safer area to "argue."
My goal was to get her to stand quietly long enough for me to reward her by dismounting. She tried just about everything except the really stupid stuff--no rearing or spinning--but she tried standing and pawing, prancing in place, fussing and pulling on the reins, backing up. Everything earned her a calm, swift, firm response from me until I got her to stand long enough to warrant me kicking my feet out of the stirrups. This started another round of more half-hearted protests, and finally I got another stand long and quiet enough for me to get off. Hopefully she learned the lesson!
Even though the ride didn't go perfectly, overall she was quite pleasant and it was confidence-building to have things get a little unpleasant and still work until I got the response I wanted. She is in season right now which I think is part of her herdish urgency, besides the fact that she is in a new place.
Anyway, here are some photos from Sunday:
Rolling after a workout
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/kteufel/nena/NenaRoll.jpg
Checking out Daisy the draft cross
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/kteufel/nena/Nenainroundpen.jpg
Nena in the woods when we found the trail head
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/kteufel/nena/NenaFace.jpg
Nena's new digs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/kteufel/nena/Nenaspaddock.jpg