Throughout our journey, Gambler and I have been confronted with a lack of time.
Green horses need time. Hours of groundwork, hours with the saddle, and then, eventually, hours and hours of riding. Hours and hours that I have to scrounge up between sunrise and sunset, around work and school and friends and church and many other aspects of life.
These last few weeks I have been losing the fight against time. I finally got a job. I love the job and I need it, for multiple reasons. Working nights, however, has spun my whole Gambler schedule in chaos. This week I have slowly been collecting the pieces and reconstructing it.
I can't make any promises, but I hope to post regularly on this blog again. I haven't written because there isn't anything to write about. Once Gambler and I are making consistent progress I will begin writing regularly again.
We spent several hours together on Tuesday, but I don't have any pictures because I was at the barn by myself. I didn't ride for the same reason. There is no good reason to take unnecessary risks.
The smile says it all.
The pictures in this post are from Sunday. I didn't ride then either, because I had a limited amount of time. On top of that, Gambler was spooking at the windy day. In our time apart, our relationship has weakened, resulting in a lack of confidence on both parts. I decided to focus on a tree that was blowing in the wind. At the beginning of our session Gambler couldn't walk past the tree without cantering away in fear. First, I asked him to circle at the walk closer and closer to the tree. Then, I asked him to slow down or stop next to the tree. After a few tries, he was standing directly beneath the tree, licking and chewing.
Directly under the tree, head down, fully relaxed.
A few hours ago I published a post about how I had lost track of my purpose. I got so focused on riding and training that I lost the relationship and the trust. So today I determined not to worry about getting on his back, but not to put it off either. I just wanted to develop our relationship, because that would naturally lead to riding. I had high hopes for the evening but I had no idea just how awesome it would be.
I walked out and tried to catch Gambler, who was way out in the South pasture. He looked up at me, nickered, and started trotting. I thought "awwww, how sweet." And then he trotted right past me and chased Kezi all the way back to the barn, leaving me to eat dust behind them. Thanks Gamby. Much appreciated. At least they had the decency to run around me instead of over the top of me.
I look so cheerful wandering through the pasture. :P
After we fed the horses, I took Gambler out into the arena. I've never really played the Parelli games in order with him. He did surprisingly well! I didn't need to use very much pressure at all to get him to lower his head, back up, yield his forequarters and hindquarters from either side, or come forward to me. I introduced him to the game of circling as the Parelli's do it, which is slightly different from how I've done it so far. I normally face him as he circles me, but they stand facing one direction and expect the horse to keep going around them. At first Gambler was really confused, but now he will go two to three full circles at the walk without checking in with me.
The barn owner brought Kezi into the arena for a while to see how she would react to a tarp I had set up under some trot poles. It was the first time we've ever tried working with Kezi and Gambler at the same time. Gambley was a little anxious when Kezi was walking through the barn and he couldn't see her, but as soon as she was in the arena he was fine.
Kezi photobombing ;)
Since my goal for the day was to play with Gambler and rekindle the bond between us, I set up a few fun obstacles to play with. Gambler's favorite! My goal was to do some liberty work with him because I haven't in such a long time, but I started by leading him on the 12' line. He didn't have any problem whatsoever.
Then came the moment of truth: I took the lead rope off. Since we haven't done anything like this in so long, I really didn't know what to expect. Gambley surprised me! Here is a video of him going over the tarp/trot poles.
There were definitely times that Gambler just walked (or trotted) away from me, but he always came back.
A couple of times he dodged around the tarp, but he loved the jump. He even trotted over it a couple times.
licking and chewing
Somebody had an itchy chin.
Signs of relaxation: lowered head and licking and chewing motions.
I asked him to walk onto the tarp, stop . . .
back up a few steps . . .
and walk on.
I was tempted to only show pictures of Gambler being good and edit all the "oops moments" out of my videos, but I decided against it. I want to show anyone who would ever want to try liberty that it isn't going to be perfect in the beginning and that is okay. Your horse is going to walk away from you. He's going to walk around the obstacles or awkwardly stand looking at you. There were a few times Gambler stood looking at me and I knew if I walked after him he would walk away. So I waited. It took patience, but every time I waited, he walked over to me.
He's thinking about coming to me.
Still waiting.
And he comes over to see what I'm up (or down) to.
Snuggles
Gambler trotting over the jump at liberty.
I let him check out the mounting block too.
But wait . . .there's more! The best part is that I got all the way on my horse today! I didn't "ride" him because he was holding still and I was just laying over his back. But I jumped over him sideways many times on both sides and stayed on there quite a while. There was a point when he saw my boot out of the corner of his eye and spooked, but he never bucked or anything like that. I fell off a ton (landing on my feet) while he was standing still. It is way harder to balance while laying sideways over a horse than you would think! I think it's ironic and amazing that the one day I didn't put all my effort into getting on his back was the day I finally mounted my horse.
Do you remember the highlight of my summer? I mentioned it in my very first post and then uploaded video proof a few days later. I was so excited. I could hardly believe that after only a few months my horse would circle at liberty.
After that I started playing games with him, making our time together fun and challenging so that we both enjoyed ourselves. Do you remember that? Do you remember the stick-to-me game that Gambler would play with me at liberty?
If you remember then you're ahead of me. Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with me. I know that owning a horse is all about the relationship and that if I ever want to do amazing things with Gambler I have to form that bond of trust with him. But time and time again I get so caught up in deadlines and comparing myself to everyone else that I miss what is right in front of me: my horse. My dream-come-true.
Today, when I go out to see Gambler, my goal isn't to work on getting him ready to be ridden, or to set the whole riding thing aside to goof off, but to play the games that horses play with each other and remind us both of the bond of trust that we once had.
