Is Sue ready to ride with other horses out in the open?
We spent the morning engaged in getting horses used to scary things outside. Most horses in the clinic weren’t scared of anything.
Sue and I got to circle with two and then three other horses. When we circled with the three horses, she became noticiably more relaxed. However, when we were circling with two horses, she was behind a slower horse and put her mouth on his rear several times to get him to hurry. I was amazed at that. We were also amazed that the lead horse didn’t kick…a good horse to be behind on a trail ride.
I rode Sue in the arena. I got another great suggestion from Jenny to calm Sue down. When she gets bothered by something, she owns her hindquarters. So we spent a lot of time trotting by the fence, stopping and disengaging. I didn’t realize how much Sue was keeping her hindquarters to herself. This game made Sue nervous and I kept owning her hindquarters. So it was another right brain/left brain game.
We did great in the arena with all the horses zipping around us. We did go outside the arena, but we came right back in.
The outdoor arena had a water obstacle mud puddle. Sue walked right into it and even thought about drinking some of the water. She is a TRAIL HORSE!
To start the afternoon off, we played a scary game of “Go Through the Towers”. We stacked barrels, put a pole on the top of the barrels and hung a tarp on the pole. the horse had to walk thru the barrels with the tarp obscuring the view unless he lowered his head.
We also played the catastrophe game. Jenny rode around with a plastic bag on a carrot stick and shook it. Our job was to face the scary thing.
Tony did an amazing demonstration of how the horse reacts when something jumps out of the bush. He allowed his horse to leap about 5 feet sideways and let him run off. We were all very impressed. Some people missed it, so he repeated it. It wasn’t near as good as the first time, but it was good. Then we watched as he fixed the fear.
Finally it was outdoor trail ride time. We followed Jenny and disengaged and backed our horses when she did. We walked around 20 acres of the field doing this. Sue and I were last. She wanted to pass the horses in front of her. She wanted to go with the wind. Instead, we stayed a horse length behind.
After we did that, we were allowed to go on our own. We got to ride at a walk or a trot for 20 steps then stop and back.
After a while Sue and I got with two other horses. We would all pass one another, but we stayed together as a group. That was great for Sue.
Not once did Sue bolt. She was nervous. She flinched a couple of times from something behind her.
I can ride Sue outside now alone or with a group of natural riders!
I can hardly wait!!!