Friday, March 25, 2011

Oh the Weather Outside Is Frightful...

And the snow is not delightful.  We got over a foot of snow on Wednesday.  A foot!  In one day!  In march!  Almost in April!  Life sucks.
Cadence was good yesterday, all things considered.  We free lunged before we rode, and then spent a while working on her mounting issues.  She's fine with me mounting from the left, but she wasn't keen on me hopping on from the right.  Why does this matter?  I no longer carry a sword when I ride, so I see no reason that I shouldn't be able to mount from the right.  We expect horses to be balanced under saddle, so why shouldn't we be balanced on the ground?  That's rather poorly worded, but hopefully I've gotten my point across. 
When I go to mount from the right, she'll stand up until I begin to gather my reins.  Then she swings her butt around, backs up, goes forward, and becomes belligerent in general.  We tried sandwiching her in between the wall and the mounting block.  She then just backed up.  Progress?  Little bits... but not really.  New strategy required?  Yes!
New strategy:  put mounting block somewhere near the middle of the arena.  Make her stand there.  Jiggle reins, still keep her standing.  Put reins in stirrups, still keep her standing.  Get on the mounting block, still keep her standing.  Get off mounting block and jiggle reins, still keep her standing.  Hop on, still keep her standing. 
Did it work?
Yes.  I'm going to try it again tonight, and hope it is still working.

On the saddle saga:  The Childeric ended up working the best.  We jumped a couple of times in it, and not only was it super comfy for me, but she really seemed to like it.  Unfortunately, it's way out of the price range.  We offered the owners a (much) lower price, but haven't heard back yet.  I'm not optimistic... however, the store that it's being sold through has a couple other more used Childerics in similar models.

2 comments:

  1. You made your argument to people about the mounting, but probably not to horses. What you are seeing may be the way she reacting to first being mounted at all, otherwise it is just different and you have to approach it as something new. She will get it. She sounds like she is fun and working out well.

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  2. Oops, put reins in stirrups was supposed to be weight in stirrups :P I suppose I ought to edit things before I post them...

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