Sue – How Do You Do -Another Crowded Arena?

March 27, 2007Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
Sue - How Do You Spell Crowded! We had a What Do You Want to Do clinic yesterday. A bunch of horses and riders showed up. We had 10 horses in the arena. It's a smaller arena than Pine Dell and 10 horses was just about the amount that the arena could comfortably hold. Of course it was a little too cramped for Sue, the horse that is scared of many other horses. A couple of times, we started to bolt forward when Sue got scared. Several times I caught…

Sue – How Do You Scoot?

March 18, 2007Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
Sue - How Do You Scoot Foward So Fast? I rode Sue today and we did really well. I try to keep one hand on the horn at all times to prevent me from jerking back on the reins if she bolts forward. She's doing so good now that she runs out of gas and tries to stop. That's when she gets pretty relaxed. There's a "short" horse inside her. Today, she tried to stop as we were doing a clover leaf pattern. I picked up the hand that is…

Sue – How Do Your Eyes Sparkle!

March 11, 2007Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
I've been letting Sue be a horse in the pasture for 2-3 months since it has been so cold, icy and snowy here. One day when I walked out to the pasture, I noticed that Sue was more outgoing. Her eyes were darker and more intent. Much to my amazement, she had moved up one horse in the pecking order. wow Sue got to attend a clipping and braiding clinic a couple of weeks ago. When I took her to the clinic, I noticed that she hadn't regressed. In the…

Sue – How Do You Interupt that Negative Fear Behavior?

January 10, 2007Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
I've not been able to get Sue to circle online without her going into the fear zone. Even the "S" turn manuever gets her riled up and rigid. She gets deep into fear before we hit the "S" of the turn and doesn't recover too much when we managed our direction change. She's sort of like a freight train to try to get turned and going the other way. I've been doing half circles on the wall and that has worked reasonably well to interupt that fear. BUT Tonight..we played…

Sue – How Do You Spell Bareback Riding?

December 2, 2006Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
We had a fluidity clinic. I rode JR bareback for an entire day. I posted bareback. I was so sore, walking was a big problem. Filled with confidence one late night. I saddle Sue up in the Parelli bareback pad. I got on. We both felt the situation. I made the slightest of signal to move. She moved one step and froze. I rubbed her gratefully for at least a minute. I made another signal and we moved one step again and froze. We sat in solitary splendor for another…

Sue – How Do You Do at Horse Play?

November 30, 2006Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
Jenny called me today to give me a report about Sue.  Sue isn't in any kind of training program. She's just a boarder at "For the Horse" Ranch. Jenny reports that when Sue was turned out yesterday, she ran, bucked and even got all 4 feet off the ground. Sue was playing. I marveled. Jenny marveled. Sue's normal mode of operation when turned out is to be invisible. She stands on the fringe of the group and pretends to be invisible. I've never seen her buck and play. I've never…