What a difference a week makes! The weather has taken a real turn and it's now chilly and damp. Yesterday it rained a lot but today it was just breezy and cool and my mom and I went for a ride.
I was kind of excited when she arrived because Coco's old mom was there fussing with Sparky. I suppose Coco's old mom is nice, and Sparky seems to like her, but she makes me mad because she's always taking him away and then I'm left all alone with nothing to do. At least Sparky's mom pays some attention to me, and usually gives me some carrot or cookies or something. Sometimes she cleans my stall or turns me out. She doesn't just ignore me completely like Coco's old mom. I mean, she says hello to me but that's about it.
But yesterday my mom arrived while she was saddling up Sparky so I knew that I'd be doing something too so I was happy. She got me out and groomed me and tacked me up and we went out into the Flat Arena to work. We were still warming up when another person came into the arena on her horse. It was a nice chestnut mare I've seen around but never had a chance to talk to or learn her name. Her mom is one of those people who watches other people riding and yells at them - my mom calls her an Instructor and says that what she's doing is giving Lessons. Well, as I told you, Sparky has been going to Lessons with Coco's old mom and he says it's fun but that it's hard work. I would think it would be. I don't know if I'd like being yelled at like that.
Anyway, they walked around for a while and then started trotting. I kind of wanted to trot too just because they were but my mom let me know with her seat that we weren't trotting yet so I kept walking. And when I say I was walking, I mean I was walking and not stopping a lot. I kind of picked up a habit of doing that during our warm-up, mostly because it's so relaxed, and my mom rides with a long, loose rein during that time. I like to walk along and stop occasionally just to look around or relax. But a couple of rides ago, my mom started getting strict about that. I have to admit I'd gotten so I was doing it a lot and I suppose she got sick of if.
So on that day, the first time I stopped, she squeezed with her legs and said, "Walk on," the way she does. When I didn't do it, she kicked me briskly with her heels and repeated herself. But when that didn't work, she just flicked her whip and smacked me hard in the butt! That startled me and I stepped right out and walked. Immediately, she was relaxed and calm and called me a Good Girl so I knew that's what she'd wanted. After a couple of repeats of that, I quit stopping and now I hardly ever do. And if I forget, all it generally takes is a threat of that whip for me to remember again.
Since I couldn't trot, I watched the other horse working. She obviously knew a lot more than me; her mom had her doing some of those fancy things that Kia used to do. Like one time she started out trotting along the rail toward us but then began going sort of sideways and forwards across the arena. It was kind of like what I did that one day when my mom was so happy with me and it looked really pretty. She also went down the center line and stopped nicely in the middle, and she did some nice circles that were actually round (my circles usually end up being sort of lumpy).
It was fun watching her do all that and I felt sort of impatient to learn that sort of thing. But then my mom asked me to trot and I forgot all about it in my happiness and excitement that I finally got to go faster.
I don't know what it is about cool weather, but it's so much fun to go fast and be bouncy when the air is nice and crisp and the wind is blowing! Even though I'd had a fun session of free lunging with lots of cantering and trotting, I was still pretty frisky and having another horse in the arena made me even more frisky. I don't know why that is either. Maybe because at the track we used to get to go fast and race each other and every time I start trotting or cantering around other horses, I want to pass them or show them how well I can run. I even do that with Sparky. I think that's why my mom works me by myself a lot. She wants me to focus on learning stuff instead of playing with my friends. But she also tries to ride me with other horses now and then and I've heard her tell people who have apologized for getting me excited that it's good for me to get used to it.
At any rate, I bounced right into a trot and I'm afraid I was rather strong at first. I was rushing and trying to break into a canter, and getting impatient and bouncing a lot. My mom just keeps reminding me with little twitches of my outside rein that I'm supposed to be listening to her but it's hard! Still, I'm getting so that I do listen pretty well - it's kind of a Habit now because we ride so regularly. So pretty soon, I settled into a fairly steady trot. It was still fast, and I was still kind of strong, but my mom always lightens up on my rein as soon as I smooth out even a little bit and I like that so much I pretty much always drop my head a little bit and reach for my bit. It's kind of a Process - I smooth out, she releases, I round and reach, then I forget and get bouncy again. So she twitches that rein, I smooth out, she releases...
It's a lot of work for both of us. I know it is for me anyway and it's got to be for her. I see a lot of horses and riders working and lots of them don't have to go through all that. The horses know what the Rules are and just follow them without a fuss and the riders don't have to spend every minute paying attention to each little signal their horse is giving them. I've even seen riders talking into those little small box things they all seem to carry without paying any real attention to their horse. My mom can't really do that most of the time. She's too busy talking to me, either out loud or with her seat and legs and hands.
This particular time, it was a lot of work and communicating but at one point, the other person told my mom that I was really coming along and that we'd made a lot of progress. I guess she's seen us working before. That was nice to hear and I know my mom was happy about it. She always feels good when people notice how all our work has paid off. And the other person seemed to understand about the bouncy part - she said lots of the horses were frisky.
So it was a good ride all in all. I was bouncy but not Bad. I don't rear anymore and I don't really try to run out from under my mom or bolt or refuse to do what she asks me to do. I almost never buck anymore although sometimes when she asks me to canter, I get excited and forget. I just get a little strong and bouncy when the weather's cool and windy and lots of horses do that.
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