Saturday, June 8, 2013

June 8, 2013


Horse training is definitely a dangerous sport. I was bucked off my Thoroughbred a few days ago and wow did it ever hurt! I was cantering him around the arena and he freaked out! I lost my balance when his rump went sky high and I bit the dirt. What did it taste like? It tasted like . . . dirt. J The next day I went out to work him and lunged him for a good long time. In fact I didn’t even ride him that day. I asked him to canter till he was tired and listening to me, then I had him change directions quickly and canter again. Keeping his mind working, so he was really paying attention. When I rode him this morning, I lunged him for a long time again before mounting up. Then I did the say thing from his back, asking him to think quickly and change directions, turn circles, and change speeds. When I rode him at the canter later he was really listening to me. This incident reminds me that I want to take some time this summer to go through a horse training video that I bought a few years ago at an Equine Affaire event. It will be helpful to go back to square one and make sure I haven’t forgotten any of the steps that would help this kind of thing not happen in the future.
On a happier note, my Arabian, Seyvilla, is finally all better! I think she is still a little stiff from not being ridden much, but I rode her at the canter for a while this morning and she is still sound (not limping or favoring her shoulder). My next step with her is to help her lose some more weight, so she won’t throw her shoulder out when we get back into sorting. Not only humans need to stay fit! J