Rode Dixie. She was completely psycho! I don't know, sigh.
It was sunny and windy and mid-60s. Maybe she's coming into heat pretty hard? Maybe it was too windy and she could smell the monsters trying to eat her soul? Maybe she was just in a mood? Anyway, we got in a protracted battle in the big field - every time I would think "quit pulling sit back relax" and try to implement my correct riding skills, she'd ABSOLUTELY BOLT. And to keep her from diving headlong into the treeline I'd pull her into a turn.
The one bright side, I suppose, was that I felt completely secure with the stirrups adjusted back. Rack canter gallop whatever, I never felt like I was one bounce from eating dirt.
When we got back in the field, I tried to ride her at a walk to cool her down. No ma'am, not happening. We did some more horrible horrible riding - me hanging off the reins while she racked, me trying to relax and get out of her face and her cantering. She wanted to veer right at one point and I was pulling her left and swear to god she got to within 5 inches of a post before she turned. I hate playing chicken.
I was completely determined to salvage something, so I rode a few circles near my truck til I thought I'd gotten a couple of almost-respectable bends, then I got off. As soon as I had Dixie untacked and brushed down, she was my best friend again. She let me scratch her sweaty face, she hung out near me for a while, and she rolled about 5 feet from me.
I don't get it. I feel kinda discouraged, but I'm just telling myself that this will pass, and this is how she and I have always been - one step forward, two steps back, then four or five steps forward. It's just time for us to step back right now. Surely this will pass and we'll be back to lovely cooperation soon?
Sorry my friend for that bad day with the mare. Sometimes mares!!!
ReplyDeleteI be the next time will be redeemed...it is spring like out and I think you are correct with the hormones begining to rage.
I had one simular day the other day as well with the Wa...would not leg yield-at all-just was like I was not there. -she was amused with watching some other horse or some sound caught her and I finally got a switch and when she ignored my light leg, or kick leg...she got switch where a nice leg would have been. Then she tried to nasty eyeball me then tried to buck me off once...
but once she yielded...Oh- I coo'd!!!
Sometimes mares!
KK
Huh...it did not turn out the way I thought I typed it!
ReplyDelete"hopefully the next time it will be redeemed with you two"
KK
Kacy is right...sometimes mares! Everyone who rides goes through these ups and downs with their horses, Funder. Even Olympians have off days with a horse when they feel like everything is falling apart. Horses like people and dogs and all other creatures have moods, and mares have more moods. Really. Don't despair.
ReplyDeleteOYE! Welcome to my life with Gogo! Remember that post about the lunging disaster? Three weeks later we're STILL freaked out about lunging. But we're much, much better and getting a little calmer every time.
ReplyDeletePatience and time. Mares will be mares, and this will pass with consistant, quiet work. I promise. Gotta be fair to them though... cause they sure do remember.
Thanks, yall :) We'd just had such a good month (aside from the not-loading, which was my fault) and I was hoping we'd moved past bolting. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteI kinda don't think it's really something I'm actively doing wrong with her. She has a whole field full of other horses and hay and water and dirt spots to roll in, but she chooses to stand around with me whenever I come out. Even after we spend an hour fighting about whether or not she gets to bolt, she still hangs out with me. Weird horse!
Today is somebody else - Champ or Poppy - then tomorrow I'll take her to my lesson. Hopefully she'll be magical again.
Mares is right!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI ride an AppyxCurly mare, and she is such a sensitive prima donna, one wrong move and you go back like 30 steps.
But do I remember that you said you had a new saddle? Are you sure its fitting properly, nothing was pinching ,etc? When you said htat she was a big mush after you untacked her, it made me think of saddle fit or a pain issue.