Monday, September 08, 2008

I've Just About Had It

Hot Again

More tolerable but still close enough to 90F to make it not fun in school and exhausting. The trouble is, in order to keep my classroom bearable, I need to have the fans going. That means the only way for me to do any "spoken" teaching, I have to shout. And, when the students answer, if they don't shout, no one can hear them over the motors.

Consequences? Worksheets on writing--good stuff--but not a lot of discussion or feedback.

Then, I looked at the master schedule again. It appears I am the only one of the four English teachers who has 6 classes a day. To top it off, the teacher who was angry at me for changing her schedule had, before the change, only two grade levels and two class preparations each day. The change gave her one more preparation. I have, even with the change, four different classes to prepare for each day. The only benefit the change gave me was that I am not stuck with inventing lessons for a class I never taught before, which does make the four preps a little easier. I still have to create new lessons for the tech writing class, but the five regular English classes already have lessons I have used before.

I suddenly stopped feeling guilty about affecting the other teacher's schedule.

I had to go to the chiropractor after school to get my neck fixed as it was threatening a headache. The swimming yesterday helped tremendously, but the nagging hint of pain to come was still there. I couldn't get a physical therapy appointment, though, so I will still have to go again tomorrow. Ah well. It would have been nice to get it all done in one trip.

I did longe the Boys, however.

But I had to use psychology. When I went to catch Tucker he decided to play runaway. Again, just out of reach, but annoying. Toby, of course would have none of it either, so I caught the good kid, Chance.

When I took him into the arena to longe, I made quite a fuss over him. He was actually really well behaved and responsive, and I was pleased to see how far he has progressed. But, I over did the praise, hugs and kisses because Tucker was standing by the gate, observing all with intense interest.

When I finished with Chance, Tucker practically stuck his head in the halter by himself. I do believe jealousy was a strong motive to convince him perhaps he might actually want to do some work for me. Aside from some cross cantering on the right lead--that old habit he can't seem to break on the lines--he too was a well behaved, responsive boy. So I praised him mightily as well and moved on to Toby.

Toby did try to escape, but surrendered to just a loop of halter on his nose. I gave him an easier longing session. Again, Tucker stood at the gate, watching intently. I made a point of first telling him, then showing him how instantly obedient Toby is to the verbal commands, and then, of course, finished up with strong praise for Toby and a nice juicy carrot.

As I was working the Boys, I realized how easy they all are to handle. Longe work and line work are a breeze, and aside from the catching nonsense, they are just a delight. Even the riding is not a big deal, despite Tucker's issues. Toby is super under saddle. Chance is easy to train, and Tucker, I believe, really does try. I think he just has trouble overcoming his own physical obstacles and lets his mind be overruled by whatever discomfort he might feel. I do think it is a "Thoroughbred" thing. as the breed is both emotionally and physically sensitive. It makes me understand why Warmbloods are so popular as sport horses. Not every trainer/rider can cope with TB temperament.

3 comments:

  1. Ah, herd behaviour! Good for you to play on it ^-^ I was smiling, I could guess Tucker facial expression watcing Chance being worked LOL!

    I would not be the fast on WB, because they have put a fair amount of TB in them. So you can have a WB with the strength of cross-draft with the emotional delicacy of a TB.
    These WB are not easy.

    Plus a WB, badly trained, will switch off, they go introvert. That is why they are called dumb. You need a fair amount of technique to keep them interested.

    Every breed offers their challenge Chance is a good-nature fellow, but not all WB are.

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  2. TB's can certainly be very difficult to train. Their physical ability but oversensitive nature makes them quite a challenge. The worst of it is that they very often seem "illogical" which my warmbloods don't. Jazz may be terribly difficult but everything he does is completely logical.

    C

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  3. Why is your schedule so unfair Jean??? It sounds like you are doing a ton more work than anyone else, how come?

    C

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