Sue had a hard day today. Well, let me tell you about it.
We went to Pine Dell and Isabel was boiling in her stall. It’s her turn to stay with Velvet in the dry lot at night. I got the saddle on Sue and then got Isabel. I let Isabel loose in the big arena and she ran back and forth from the gate where Sue was tied and the front of the arena. Finally, I got Sue ready and in we went.
I let Sue loose and we played the circle game at liberty with two horses. We all had quite a time. Isabel, still feeling fresh, exploded now and then in a kick at Sue. Sue dodged.
Tony came by and we chatted about Isabel. I turned around and had Isabel come into me. I petted her and let her return to play with Sue. Tony and I chatted for a while and that’s when I noticed that Sue and Isabel were still running around the arena. They would trot half the arena and then stop and rest for a moment.
This is when Sue’s mind turned from horse accepting of humans into a “Can’t Catch Me Horse”. Isabel was having such a great time at this, she just followed Sue.
We started playing the Catch Me game in earnest. They had to keep moving and I didn’t. If either horse looked in to me, I would back up and allow the horse to catch me. That didn’t happen.
They were having a great time running around the arena. Sue was the lead horse and Isabel was right on her hip.
That’s when I noticed the catastrophe starting to happen. Was that saddle slipping. hmmm. Yes, I believe the saddle is starting to slip. Oh Wow! It’s half way to her belly right now. I headed them off and got both horses to stop. I approached Isabel and then Sue. Right as I was starting to get my rope over Sue’s neck, Isabel took off and Sue flew away too. It wasn’t but a half a lap and Sue was wearing the saddle underneath her tummy.
She went galloping around a corner, slipped and fell. Then she couldn’t get up. It was hard to determine if she had a foot caught in something or what. Isabel came over and pretended to kick at her. I thought that was pretty nasty of her.
Sue stopped thrashing and I has able to get to her head. Tony got there and took over Sue. I got to Isabel and started leading her to the gate. Barb came in with the halter and took Isabel away.
Tony had kept Sue from struggling. He held her neck down and just rubbed and rubbed her. When I got back, he was ready to get the saddle off. Luck was with us as the place where the girth was cinched up was right on the top of Sue’s belly. Tony was able to reach it and then we all stepped back. Now Sue was too frightened to get up. Tony had to slap her on her rear to get her to try again. We finally determined that she had her feet in the belly of the saddle and couldn’t get the foot to stay in place. Finally, the saddle was thrown aside and Sue was able to rise. She was unhurt.
Tony haltered her and handed me the lead rope. We all rubbed on her for a moment. Then I took her over to the mounting block and I just sat there with her. She had steam coming up from her back.
After the steam settled, I need to play with her some more to get her mind back in the game and also to tighten her saddle girth.
I decided to play with the Hula Hoop. Sue is still very nervous about the Hula Hoop going over her head. This time we started with the hoop going over her head instead of finishing with it. We also got a lot of ear touching done with the hoop.
Then I used the hoop instead of the carrot stick to ask Sue to do the circle game, turn on the hind quarters and forequarters. We played with it again and again over the head.
I also “accidentally” dropped the hoop on the saddle. That makes Sue nervous. She flinches with things hit the saddle and make a noise.
Finally, it’s time to ride. Sue is so nervous after I got on that when I let the rope rein go slack, she flinched when it touched her neck. Now that is nervous.
So, all we did for a long while is the 4 corner game. We walked to a corner, stopped and backed. We sat there for a least a minute and I rubbed her neck. Sometimes I rubbed her rear end too. Then we walked the other direction. After a while of this, she would let out a huge sigh at every stop. She also started to shake her head. She was letting the stress go.
After a long time at the walk, we did a faster walk to the corners. After we did this and she was relaxed at the stops, we went on up to a gait. We did that and then started to pass a corner. Instead of stopping at every corner, we skipped 2-3 corners.
When she got so that she could go down the long end of the arena at a nice relaxed gait, we stopped for the day.
She took me up to the fence and I dismounted. She wasn’t nearly as surprised this time when I suddenly disappeared from her back.
We had a good ride.