Sunday, February 1, 2009

Weekend Warrior Rides again

Can you say "Weekend Warrior Rides" 3 times without mixing the W's and R's? I don't think I can. Anyway...

My horse life has been reduced to the Weekend Warrior lifestyle. I can only work with her on the weekends and not every day of the weekends every week. So I have committed to working with her on Sundays especially. Today, we had church. Then at 11 hubby had to do firefighter stuff (he left church early). No one was doing anything horsey at the church, so I went home and fixed lunch for me and the kid. Then I took a nap. After the nap, I got horsey motivated. We stayed at the house this time and hubby was back so I felt more comfortable. I brushed her and saddled her, longed for a few minutes then got on. We walked down the road and I decided I needed my phone so we turned around. I remembered what my horse trainer friend said: "On the way home, stop and back constantly." So I decided to try. Well, she wouldn't back up. He also said to put her in a shank snaffle so I said, "OK, wanna be a pest? I know how to fix this." I went home and got the shank snaffle out. I only road her around the yard after that because it's a lot softer than the road if I end up on the ground. She did back a LOT better though.

I just hate to go harder. I figure the softer the better, and she was only in a hackamore when I got her. I was riding her in a ring snaffle.

1 comment:

Andrea said...

I have a four year old colt that has been started and stopped and started and now stopped. It seems like this horse will never ever get broke. But I am about to put him in a shaked bit. Softer is better but sometimes they need a little push and then you can go back to the snaffle bit.

And thanks for the tip, with the grain for Peanut. I am going to go and get some Be Calm in today. I need something that will work all day, and Ace only works for a few hours. The playday is an all day event. It's just scary because he is so good at home, and I would hate for him to misbehave at the rodeo. Sigh...Thanks for the help.