Sue – How Do You Do -Another Crowded Arena?

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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 Your Eyes Sparkle!

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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?

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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 Do with an Uncoordinated Clod of a Rider?

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My personal life got in the way again of riding and time has passed. I also haven't reported on the great rides Sue and I've had in the Monday nite lessons...She knows the other horses now and is very relaxed. So, I've taken off work and riding during the day all this week (except, I got interupted again by my personal life). Anyway. There are three horses being rode in the arena. One of them is standing still. The other one is zipping around. I decide today is the new…

Sue – How Do You Do in Arena Chaos?

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The arena was filled with horses. One horse and "new to us" rider  didn't even know we were fearful. She was new. We rode in an organized chaos. We all rode in a straight line somewhere and first stopped and did hindquarter perfect turns. Then we trotted, stopped and did our hindquarter perfect turns. After we did that for a while, we started at the walk again and did perfect forequarter turns...and then again at a trot. How do you think Sue did with horses going every which way? She was…

Sue – How Do You Spell Progress?

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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…