Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Heat is Gone!!

For Now, Anyway

I had two doctors' appointments today, so I had to take the day off from school.

The weather was beautiful. Upper 70's with a breeze.

However the first appointment was for my eyes--and it took more than a month to get it--and during the exam, my doctor put drops in my eyes to dilate my pupils. I really couldn't go out for long in the sun until it wore off. Well, my pupils were still dilated when I had to head out for my other appointment. By then, though, I wasn't sun sensitive, so I could put my contact lenses back in and use my regular sun glasses.

I'd fed the Boys before I left so when I got back home I was able to ride.

The good and the bad of Tucker. I think we had about 4 incidents of stop, lay the ears back and refuse to go. The first was when I first got on. I turned him out of that one and he moved off with a nice forward stride.

Into the session we had another balk, this one with a threat to rear when I tapped him on the shoulder with the whip. However, he thought better of it and finally moved off again.

The third one was a bit more determined on his part, so I dismounted and used the whip on his bum to drive him forward around me in a circle. It's not the best solution, but at least I got his feet moving and when I remounted he decided going was better than not.

The fourth one was shortlived and I managed, again by using a lateral move--mostly with the reins--got him going.

The frustration was that the work in between was really nice. He was forward, up, and really on the bit. I am hoping that much of this is out of habit more than intent and he will soon decide to overcome it and get on with the program.

As I have said, if not, he goes to a trainer. I gave him a pretty good lecture about that to remind him it was up to him to make the choice. Since he's had over a week off because of that dreadful heat and humidity, I will give him a "bye" for today's tantrums. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

I did break the session up into two parts of about 20 minutes each. In between I let him walk on a long rein. The positive of this was that on the second session he went right back on the bit and worked as well as he had the first session. This is good because usually after he relaxes for a while, he usually can't seem to get it all back together again. I hope today was a good sign that the concepts are really beginning to sink in.

I just lunged Chance and Toby as it was getting late and, since I'd had a really nice chiropractic adjustment, I didn't want to over do with my out of shape body either. Both of them went well, but I have to laugh a little about how Chance seems to think that cantering around the circle once is such a lot of work. He'll go for me, but I have to imagine that big "sigh" Caroline often mentions with Jazz and Zip. It must be a warmblood thing! *G*

Tomorrow I plan on taking Toby out for a hack in the woods and, if the bugs aren't bad--as the season for the worst of them MAY be over, I will take Chance out too. If the bugs aren't there at all, I will school Tucker in the ring and then finish up with a little hack on him too.

3 comments:

  1. Hey I finally blogged today and it's great news...

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  2. Anyone who reads comments here: James has been working on restoring a gravestone to the grave of a freed slave who owned a farm in our Township. The stone was damaged and in need of repair. All his hard work has paid off now with a grant of money to restore the stone and the strong possibility at can be restored to its rightful place on the farm over the Titus grave.

    James' blog tells only part of the story. It just barely reflects all the hard work, dedication and love he has poured into this effort.

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  3. jean, i wonder if some ground work would help? not long lining/lunging/in hand, but the sort of stuff i'm doing with Molly?

    cos i'm thinking it might partly be a respect issue, and that might help a lot on that..?

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