Reading My Old Posts
Kind of interesting to see how little progress I have actually made with getting Tucker to be an honest worker. So many of the old "attitude" problems from the beginnings of my blog are still there. On the up side, he has progressed in most of his skills, but I still have to ride him with "kid gloves" instead of like a "normal horse."
What is a normal horse? Well, you put your leg on, the horse goes. Toby is kind of a normal horse that way and so is Chance. Neither is perfect, but they do go. Tucker goes and he doesn't go and when he's done "going" he stops. I've been putting up with it for a long time. It looks as if I will have to continue putting up with in unless I want to battle it out once and for all.
I am enough of a coward at this point in my life to choose not to battle. Tuck has a wicked buck, and even though he usually doesn't offer more than one, one is enough to unseat me in a most uncomfortable way. I plan on continuing the "dismount, correct, and remount" technique as long as I make some progress, but to do that, I have to ride!! Once more the weather takes its toll.
Well into the upper 90's again today. This morning, although it was cool, I was again soaked in sweat after I finished the stalls and morning feed. I think the humidity dropped during the day, however, as when I went to buy alfalfa cubes, it did feel drier.
Speaking of...on the way to the feed store, I kept seeing runners with numbers on their backs along the roads. There were cars following with numbers as well and when I did get to the feed store, one of the cars was parked there. I walked over and asked about the "River to the Sea Relay." The guy told me it was a relay run from Milford, NJ to Manasquan, which is at the shore. The whole course was 92 miles. Teams of seven runners each took legs of 2.5-9 miles at a time--which explains why some of the runners I saw were not "marathon lean." They were in Englishtown at around 4 PM which means they had about another 25 miles or so to run. It's really kind of a cool race from what I could see. I guess it would take a lot of strategy to decide who was best to run each leg. And today, the hot weather had to come into play. The race is run every year on the first Saturday in August. Here is a link to the NY Times article about the race which was inspired by the Olympic Torch relay run back in 1996. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/27relaynj.html
What a cool idea! From the Delaware River to the Atlantic Ocean, the trip across my state is really a lovely journey. I wouldn't want to run it myself--I can't run anyhow with my knees--but what an adventure!
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Fun to see the racers!
ReplyDeleteIs it time to ride him like the horse you expect him to be - in the positive sense? Mark says that we tend to get the horse we expect and sometimes it's time to ask more and get the job done. I don't know - it's a fine line between taking care and just getting the job done because it's there to do and the horse is probably up for it if we are. I tend to err on the side of caution these days due to age, but sometimes I think I lose something with that.
The race sounds like an interesting one through nice country. I don't run anymore either and can't even begin to think how hot and sweaty it would be to participate on a day like today. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that one day he will just 'get it' and give in. I know how frustrating a horse like this can be, but I believe in persistence and repetition. I also don't blame you for not pushing it with him, we don't just fall and bounce back so quickly nowadays. It's more of a splat when we hit the ground.