Sue -How Do You Do with Susan Swatting a Fly in her Ear?

July 24, 2006Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
Group Lesson Monday with five horses. We rode outside in the big arena. I concentrated on relaxing and having a good time. Sue's feet were a little sore from having been trimmed on Saturday and the dirt outdoor arena was hard and uneven. I told everyone before I got on, not to raise their hands... After that, I didn't yell at anyone. I didn't have to! Sue was perfect. Except For the big fly that flew into my ear. Of course my arm came flying wildly up to my ear…

Sue – How Do You Do!

July 23, 2006Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
Arena and sole trail ride today...all went great! Sue and I played at liberty in the round pen. We have a lot of confidence building to do there. In change of directions, she wouldn't face me to change direction...but just one way. We worked on porcupine sidepassing and porcupine hindquarters disengagement. She ignores my leg when I'm riding her to sidepass to the left. Perhaps it will get better when we get it better on the ground. Impulsion Bull's Eye Game-We practiced walking and trotting around the outside of the…

Susan – How Did You Do On the Trail Ride – Emotional Clod!

July 22, 2006Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
 How Did You Do on the TRAILRIDE:( I'm naming this Blog, Susan - How Do You Do? It's more and more about me and less and less about Sue...or maybe it's 50-50 now. So, we went on our first training trail ride today. We had one young horse, Sue and two nice slow calm horses. I decided that the young horse should ride behind a calm horse who was put in the lead. Then my  friend on her calm horse would ride third and Sue and I would bring up…

Sue – How Do You Spell Progress?

July 15, 2006Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
This was a three hour group lesson in brutal heat. We started at 9:00 am and by noon everyone was very willing to STOP. Last night I had watched the latest Parelli pod cast. It was about horses that are scared to have horses behind them or meet other horses. Talk about right on time Pod Cast! Pat rode his pretend fearful horse, Cash, in the round pen. Linda's job was to canter around the outside of the round pen. Cash rode on the rail inside and when she got…

Sue – How Do You Do with your Pathetic Rider?

July 10, 2006Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
Monday nite lesson. Here was another riding experience when I was more scared than Sue! Of course you know that Sue doesn't like other horses too close to her and certainly not Behind Her!At the Monday nite lesson, someone rode too close behind her. Sue tightened up. I tried to zip around the arena, cut through the middle etc and lose the horse, BUT NO! The horse stayed right on Sue's tail. I asked the rider not to ride that close to us, but nothing happened. I was pretty desparate…

Sue – How Do You do in a Clinic with Many Horses?

July 8, 2006Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
We had an Advancing Clinic at Pine Dell today. Part of our ground work -assigned only to Sue and I- was driving using the 45' rope. It's a stiff rope, like a lariat. It's very long. Sue didn't like it moving behind her rear end very much. I stayed right beside her and asked her to move on the rail. It didn't work at all in the arena. She got nervous about the rope on her rear end and got her feet outside of the "reins". I wasn't handy enough…