Back on Track (Again)

Today was the first day I've found time for a session with Gambler in over a week. The light was fading fast, so everything was a bit rushed. Gambler was attentive and relaxed, which was impressive given the circumstances. He's always a little squirrely when I haven't seen him in a while.

I started out by playing the Parelli games with him just to see where we were. Horses live in the moment. They remember everything, but they don't live for yesterday, or tomorrow; they live today. So every time I  see Gambler I run over the basics to see what horse I have for the day.

Circling at the walk.

Yielding the forequarters

Yielding the hindquarters

Lateral flexion

Lateral flexion

Flipping the reins over Gambler's neck to get him used to the motion.

One thing I have been focusing on Gambler's right side. He is not comfortable seeing me out of his right eye. He prefers to be led from the left, and whenever I groom him on the right he wants to turn his head and look at me from the left eye. I've spent enough time on the circling game that he is comfortable going both directions, but the friendly game is scarier on the right. Not to mention when I play the driving game to move his forequarters on the right he will swing his hindquarters at me threateningly. Today I spent some time on the right side and it paid off. He started licking and chewing and yawning, releasing a lot of nervous energy. 

Then I did some mounting prep. He still isn't acting spooky, but he is grumpy. I've had the chiropractor come out, so I know everything is okay, but he's acting like he is in pain. I hope that it's a ptsd sort of thing, and he is just remembering a past injury. I'm afraid the damage is deeper. For now I'm going to continue. I've sat on him before without any grunting so maybe he just had a belly ache today. Fingers crossed.

While my mom and I were trying to put weight on him without head tossing, biting, and grunting, a new situation arose. Kezi is apparently no longer herd-bound to Gambler. Gambler, on the other hand, is definitely attached to Kezi. So Kez just walked away into the other pasture and Gambler went bananas. I'm talking full-out cantering in circles, bucking, kicking, you name it. For the most part he listened to my cues and stayed out of my space (he needed a few reminders), which was impressive. Needless to say, it's just one more thing we'll have to address at a later date.

By this point the sun had nearly set, so we brought the horses in to feed them. We gave Gambler an extra dose of Metamucil in case his grumpiness was caused by a sand colic flare-up. Then I spent some time grooming him in the cross-ties. 

I Rode My Horse! (First Ride)

The title says it all. After six months of hard work I got to ride my horse for the very first time.

I started the session by longeing Gambler in a figure-eight shape around two barrels. He caught on to the new exercise quite quickly. Next I sent him over a jump once or twice, because I know he loves that. It is really difficult to send him over the jump from the ground though, because the rope gets caught on the jump standards. It will be easier to play with jumps once I can ride him comfortably walk/trot.

Then I longed him for a while, and realized that while I've been focused on other things his transitions have gotten pretty gross. When I asked him to canter he just jump-bucked into one or two strides before falling back into the trot. When I increased my pressure he fell back into his old habit of stopping and backing up. I was going to pressure him to go forward, but then he started backing up toward the horse-eating trees. Aha! Instead I asking him to keep backing up and then we played the circling game right underneath the scary trees. Granted, it wasn't a windy day, but I say that's a huge step in the right direction.

After that, I asked Mom to hold Gambler while I did mounting prep. I set up the camera at this point, but afterwards I found out that it ran out of memory and stopped recording only a few seconds in. I started out like I have before, standing on the mounting block rubbing Gambler all over his neck and back. After leaning over his back and then jumping up and laying over him sideways; I finally jumped right up onto his back. The first time was so smooth and perfect - I don't think I touched his flank with my foot at all. I caught Gambler (and myself) by surprise. I didn't even know I was going up; it just happened. So weird. Anyway, I sat up there for a little while rubbing him on the neck and rear and then I got off. I got on two more times (at least once on both sides). The last time I asked Mom to lead him just a couple steps forward because the light was fading and I didn't have time to put a legitimate first ride on him. He was a little grumpy, meaning that he turned his head around and tried to bite my foot, but he didn't spook at all.

Since I didn't get any good pictures or video, here are the gorgeous fall pictures I took at the barn on Thursday. I will try to get good videos/pictures of Gambler's official second first ride.

Mirror Mirror on the wall . . .who is the grouchiest girl of them all?

*Not My Photo*

We've all heard that horses reflect us, and anyone who has spent a decent amount of time with horses knows it is true. Horses can "sense" how we are feeling. Now I realize that there are scientific explanations. Horses know when we are upset because they can feel our heartbeats and read our body language, ect. ect.  But I don't really care how or why it works, it fascinates me. Being prey animals, horses are extremely sensitive to our every mood and it shows.

Sadly, this wonderful mirror thing can be a real pain. Especially if you're a wonderful person like me who gets incredibly, unreasonably grumpy when she hasn't eaten enough. Did I mention this person didn't eat breakfast, had a small lunch, and was in such a hurry to go see her beautiful horsey that she forgot to eat supper? It was a recipe for disaster. 

Most of the time I try to keep my moods cheerful and energetic. I only get four days a week with Gambler on average, so I can't afford to lose time over an emotional breakdown (almost the entire month of July). That being said, I am human and a teenaged girl so every once in a while I'm gonna have a bad day. 

 My session with Gambler wasn't so bad, nothing horrible or dangerous happened. I just wasn't feeling it (translation: Jenna was so grumpy not even Gambler wanted to be near her) so of course, Gamby wasn't either. That being said he was very good. He popped into the trot with a pointed finger and two clucks. The canter is still a little rough around the edges, but he cantered on cue as well. I tried some liberty work, but when you're grumpy and your horse knows you're grumpy, he isn't gonna want to hang out with you. 

So we called it a day, fed the horses, went home, and sat around a bonfire with hot dogs and chai tea. It's a weird combination, but surprisingly it works. 

grooming while ground-tied

eye close up

artsy pic

So adorable!

Playing with a jump.

And the other way.

It's a pity this picture is blurry, because it's really cool.

A moment of liberty before Gambley decided to keep his distance.

Taking off . . .

. . . landing . . .

. . . and tossing his head 'cause that was so fun!

Hey Jenna, did you want me to do something?

Oh look, it's Kezi!