This week I was assigned a new horse, Shelby. She’s very different than Black Jack. Though I will be starting all over with a new horse, the things I have learned so far in class with Black Jack will help me with Shelby so there will be some areas where we will make faster progress. Shelby hasn’t been in the arena for a few weeks so she was pretty fresh in there, she was bucking rearing and just running around while playing the circling game. She is a lot more Left brained than Black Jack, but I haven’t played with her enough to know if she is introverted or extroverted. So since Tuesday was the first day we started riding I first started playing the passenger game with my Classmate and the horse she had because Shelby was not quite in the right mind frame to be ridden yet. After that I spent for most of the class time playing with Shelby so I got on her to play the passenger game. I definitely have a lot of work to do on getting a balanced and independent seat. I seem to have become more dependent on the saddle and stirrups.Thursday we worked on pre-flight checks. Shelby did very well with the lateral flexion and then we also did something where I wrapped the rope around her to help with sticky feet. She did pretty well when I was rubbing her and jumping up next to her while having my hands on her back. She did try to bite a little but she responded well when I asked her to stop by tapping her face. Even though Shelby is not a very tall horse, I am not a very tall person so I had a difficult time actually getting on her bareback. I brought her over to the mounting block and that worked well, until she started walking away with me hanging at her side. Then at some point while trying to get her to stand next to the mounting block something scared her, so she tripped over the block and from then on was uncomfortable having it next to her side. So basically I was getting frustrated and she was too, so I jumped up with my hands on her back, and she stood still, and I called that good and we moved onto something else.
I still have a lot of work to do with Shelby, because I know pretty much nothing about her horsenality and don’t particularly care for her yet, though I am sure I will once I get the chance to play with her more.
What Shelby learned this week: Playing the driving game, Lateral Flexion and standing still while I attempted to climb on her bareback.
February 22-27th
Tuesday we worked more on pre-flight checks. Shelby was getting really agitated with me jumping up and down next to her back, because that was as far as I could get since she had no saddle. After I had someone help me mount her I realized that the reason she was getting
annoyed was because I kept doing the same thing over and over and it seemed pointless to her. As soon as I actually got on her she was just fine. I just walked her around in a couple small circles. She seems to be very sensitive to the stimulus to be asked to move, I didn’t have to use much pressure to get her to walk. Grooming Shelby can be a little difficult, at first she would stand still but now she has started moving around, her hooves are also difficult to pick up, she kicks her back legs really hard to try and get out of it. I will work on that and hopefully we will make improvements! Thursday was the first day I really rode Shelby. We spent a lot of the class on “running our reins” that is where we slide out hand down the rein so that our seat remains in the same place but we use the reins to change the direction of our horses. This is something I definitely need to work on! While we were listening to the teacher Shelby did not want to hold still and kept wanting to walk around. This makes me think she is more extroverted. Once we started walking around we were doing good, but just turning in circles over and over got very boring for Shelby. She started to trot, so I asked her to slow down and since that wasn’t what she wanted to do she did a little buck and somehow I stayed on. The teacher then told me since that was more of a dominance thing and since she was getting bored I should work on letting her trot and turning her and giving her something to do and making sure she knew I was her leading her. She started bucking while trotting and I couldn’t hang on bareback so I fell! I was excited because I have ridden for awhile and hadn’t actually fallen off yet, so now I can say I have! It was easier than I thought to decide to get back on, so I did and tried again, unfortunately I lost my balance again just a couple minutes later and she must have kicked up because I found my legs wrapped around her neck and then I slid down underneath her neck. Fortunately when I dropped off she went backwards away from me. Twitchell got on her and showed me what I should do, so after watching him I got on to try again. I wasn’t nervous about riding her at a walk but I was a little nervous at first when I asked her to trot, after falling off twice I was able to recognize when I was about to fall and was able to stay on this time. It was important for me to work on running my reins while trotting her because I needed to keep my seat balanced. By the end Shelby was doing much better and was listening to me more rather than trying to do what she wanted. Saturday I decided to ride her in a saddle just because I did not want to fall off again, but she was much better. She was a little bucky at first, but then she was listening to me and trotting nicely.What Shelby learned this week: To move and walk when I raise my energy and increase my phases, to listen to me when I use my reins to turn and direct her. When I ask her to bend as soon as she gives into the pressure it will be released.
March 1st-6th
On Tuesday when Shelby and I went into the arena she started off by what seemed out of nowhere trying to kick me and then she bolted and started bucking. I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I kept her going in a circle, and that didn’t seem to help because she tried to kick me again. The TA told me I needed to have a focus and just go with her, so I switched to the driving game and that was a little better but didn’t seem to help calm her down at all. Twitchell then told me that I needed to slow down my phases of asking her to go and change directions, I didn’t think that would work because it seemed like she wasn’t listening to me at all. He took her and showed me that when he slowed down his phases she started to slow down and listen to him better. He made sure that when she did what he asked her that he rewarded her to let her know that was right. I spent that class on the ground with her because we really need to work on our relationship on the ground since we went straight to riding. Thursday we had a similar problem, I am learning that I need to slow down my phases because I have been skipping the lower phases and that just makes her overreact. I have found that when I slow down Shelby slows down and I can bring her mentally back to me, but I still need to have her mentally with me when she is going fast so that is something we need to work on. I learned how to properly play the circling game with Shelby today, before she had been coming into me and would stop next to me rather than circling around me. I learned how to switch the carrot stick and lead rope behind my back so I could use the carrot stick to ask her to move away and keep moving forward. When I walk Shelby into the arena she has started to get scared of every little thing and has tried to bolt away from me, and sometimes tries to run overtop of me. I tried to take a carrot stick out with me to help, It didn’t seem to help very much the first time I took it out. But on Saturday I was a lot more assertive with her, it seems like she really needs someone to tell her what to do. Shelby can be a difficult horse to work with because sometimes she needs that more assertiveness and other times I need to be really soft and slow with her otherwise she gets overwhelmed.
What Shelby learned this week: How to successfully play the circling game at a walk. To move away from me when I ask her, to drive nicely from her pen to the barn. That I would lower my phases and allow her to think about what I was asking her to do.
March 8th-13th
Shelby has been doing great when driving into the barn, she is no longer trying to run me over and because I am focused and confident she feels safer and is not spooking at everything. I am still working with Shelby to figure out when I need to be more assertive and when I need to be slower and more gentle with her.
Shelby is still difficult when I ride her though, she likes to throw her head and do little rears, I am getting better at staying on her bareback though. It is difficult to ask her for much when I am more concerned about trying to stay on. Friday was an awesome day for Shelby and me! I am wondering if the reason I have been having problems with her on Thursdays has something to do with me coming to class with a different attitude. I don’t think I am acting different but I might be. So I decided today to go with a positive attitude and expect that things were going to go well. I’ve realized that she really does not like the circling game and that we should limit our use with that. I did a lot of the driving and squeeze game today. I was trying to get her to walk over a pole that was raise, and she was very nervous about doing so. I lowered the pole to the ground just incase she physically could not lift her legs over it, she was still scared of it on the ground. I started by playing the squeeze game by sending her between me and where the pole was. Eventually I sent her to go over the pole and allowed her to go as far as she wanted. I learned that if I waited, even though it might look like she wasn't doing anything, she is actually processing what I asked her to do and showed me that she understood by licking and chewing. Eventually because I had built her trust in me she walked over the pole! I have been driving her to places she will find interesting, outside I drove her to the hay on the ground, and inside I drove her to objects she could sniff. Friday I worked on playing the driving game and asking her to trot, and I made sure to really watch her and stay connected with her, I found that all I had to do this time was raise my energy start jogging and click a little bit and she would do a nice slow trot rather than take off at a high speed. She was really listening to me while we were playing the driving game, I was changing directions and she was changing right along with me. At one point I was running from one end of the arena to the other and she was trotting alongside of me and she kept looking at me to see where we were going, it was awesome. I want to have this connection with her everytime. I think if I work on having that connection with her we will be able to learn so much more together. On Saturday I worked on seeing if Shelby could trot in a straight line without resisting by rearing up or bucking and didn't have much luck. It seems everytime she is going in a straightline I have to bend her so I don't end up getting thrown off. I worked on having her read my energy to take one step forward and one step back. She did great with one step forward I didn't have to raise my phases much, and she also was able to step backward but I did have to increase my phases to pulling back with the reins. For our final ideally we are supposed to have them take 1 & 2 steps forward and 1 & 2 steps backward without using the reins. I have been having difficulty getting Shelby to stand next to the mounting block, I have to sneak it behind me to climb on her, so I decided to see if I could get on her from the ground. After several attempts and advice from friends, I figured out how to jump on her from the ground bareback, and she learned that she needed to stand still while I did so!
What Shelby learned this week: To be driven over a pole, to be really connected to me while playing the driving game, take one step forward and backward with me in the saddle, stand while I mounted her bareback from the ground.
March 15th-20th
This week with Shelby was interesting, on Thursday I decided it was time to start riding Shelby with a saddle because while I am getting better I staying on bareback, we really aren’t getting anywhere. We are doing great on the ground, she is focused on me and is matching me when we play the driving game. But when I get on her back that connection is gone. She would rear up or buck everytime I asked her to trot, and then when I would ask her to walk she would want to start trotting. So it just seemed like no matter what I was asking she didn’t want to do it. The TA decided to get on her, and the whole time Shelby had her teeth bared and was trying to bite everyone and everything she passed. She was doing her usual bucking and rearing thing and I really didn’t understand why she was so angry. The TA was trying to get her to change to enjoy what she was doing, and it seemed like in a certain corner of the arena she was doing well. After getting her to relax more and be in a better state of mind I took over riding Shelby, we worked on just walking around the arena. I hadn’t realized that I could just pull back on her reins and get her to slow down, because while I was riding her bareback I had been working on turning her to gain more control and trying not to fall off. It takes time to learn what I need to do when with Shelby. On Friday I worked with Shelby on the ground with a long line, we worked on trotting and loping. She was generally listening to me but I have noticed she is uncomfortable with me on her right, and she did have her ears pinned back. Saturday Shelby was the same as she was on Thursday, lots of bucking and acting out against the other horses. I was working on teaching her that even though she was bucking and rearing I wasn’t going to stop asking her. By the end of the day she was doing better, not perfect, but there was a definite improvement. She did very well in that corner of the arena she was interested in on Thursday. Everytime we got to that corner I could feel that she was more attentive to me and relaxed so I would give her a release there. We were on the same page by the end of our time together, I drove her around all the horse pens outside after class and she listened to me the whole time even though there were areas she was nervous about, she seems to be trusting me more as a leader on the ground atleast.
What Shelby learned this week: Bucking and Rearing does not work when trying to get out of being asked to move forward. If she trots nicely and relaxes she gets rewarded.
March 22-27th
Shelby and I have actually made improvements. When I compare how she is during grooming to how she was before I see a huge improvement. She will stand still to be brushed, let me brush her all over. And now when I go to pick up her hooves there is no resistance at all! She now just relaxes her back legs and legs me pick them up. I think that says a lot about her trust for me, because having someone holding your feet is a frightening thing for a horse. In class on Tuesday we started off by doing some groundwork and when I first asked her to trot she got angry and started to take off, but then she came back to me. I think that playing the squeeze game with her has really helped out relationship because she now knows that it is good to be by me. When I got on her she started off by rearing up when I asked her to walk, so everytime she reared up or bucked a little I continued to ask her and got her to where she was walking nicely. Twitchell got on her to try and see something, he worked with jumping her and going over the jump several times in different patterns. It really changed Shelby’s attitude, her ears went forward instead of flat against her head. She needed something to focus on rather than the person annoying her on her back or the other horses around her that were annoying her. Watching him ride her over the jump in different patterns helped me understand what I could do to have more consistency and variety in the things I do with her. Even though the ride seemed like it was going to be difficult because of how we started out, it was the best ride I have ever had with Shelby! We were working on jumping, so we had poles on the ground that we had to use focus to go over, and Shelby was listening so much better when I have something to focus on! This was the first time Shelby ever consistently trotted nicely, it was wonderful! Twitchell was helping me know what to do to help Shelby so we were going over the jump and weaving through poles, and it kept Shelby’s focus. I asked him why she was so much better on the ground than she was when I got in the saddle, and he gave me a few suggestions. One could be that I am a better leader on the ground, or maybe that since before she came to the school she hadn’t had much groundwork so she learned how to do that but went back to old habits when I was in the saddle. I think after today it was because I am a better leader on the ground. At first I wasn’t as good of a leader on the ground, which is why I was having problems with her rearing and bucking on the ground, but once I learned to focus and do the things that would help her get centered on the ground she improved also. I think I now understand how I can do that on her back so that she feels that I am her leader while I am on her back. Thursday started out great, she didn’t rear up or buck in refusal to go forward. We were working on the question box. This is an area in a square shape that everytime we enter it we want to change something about what we are doing to keep our horse listening to us and wondering what we are going to ask them next. Shelby and I were doing very well for awhile, and then started getting angry. The TA mentioned that my reins were too tight and that I should loosen those up and work more on sliding my hand down the rein to ask her to turn, after doing that she was much more relaxed and listening to subtle cues. She started getting upset again and it seemed like it was mostly at other horses, she started to try and bite and really kicking up at them. I was trying to change her focus but it seemed like she was still angry because she was bucking and really pulling her head down which was a different kind of bucking than the last time. I asked the teacher if he wanted to ride her so I could so what he would do in that situation but he told me just to walk her around. She started to relax and calm down. He told me that the reason she was getting upset was I was asking too much out of her. At first I didn’t understand,but then thinking back maybe the question box wasn’t the best for her because she was doing what I asked her and then I’d ask her for more and she would get mad because she thought she was doing what she was supposed to. So she was just taking out her anger on the other horses around her. We also worked on circles during this class. We worked on not micro-managing our horses, instead of constantly holding the reins we would only use them when our horse started to go off course. By just using focus Shelby did very well with walking circles, I didn’t trot her because that just put her in the wrong mind frame and she just wanted to attack all of the other horses. It seemed that just walking her around and doing what she could succeed at kept her in the right mind frame and kept her happy so she didn’t react out of anger. On the ground our relationship is doing very well, she has started to want to be with me, I had to leave the arena so I tied her up and I could tell she wanted to be with me because of the way she was looking at me and the little whickering sounds she was making at me. Even though Shelby throws something new at me everyweek I am really enjoying working/playing with her. I think even though I was at first disappointed that I had to switch to a new horse she is much more beneficial to me than Black Jack. Friday was a good day for Shelby and I to build our relationship on the ground. There were four other horses loose in the arena, and she kept her focus on me even though she could’ve just said see ya and ran off to be with the other horses. Since moving other horses feet shows who is the leader, I would tell the other horses to go away anytime they came near us so I think that helped Shelby realize I was the leader. When I was riding her I asked her to trot and she started into a lope, so instead of asking her to slow down I just let her go for a little bit and then by herself she slowed down to a nice trot. This was a big improvement from Thursday. We kept our time together short just so she could be successful for the day and have a good experience. Saturday we played some games while doing groundwork, we practiced the sideways game, I had her face the wall and moved her front quarters and hindquarters away from me. for riding we worked some more on just doing things that would be enjoyable. Saturday we worked on circles and I worked on not micromanaging Shelby. She responds well to leg pressure but sometimes thinks that means to go faster so I have to bring her back down. Today when I asked her to go a little faster and she started loping I let her go again, but this time instead of slowing down she went faster and faster did a few small bucks and didn’t respond to the pressure of being pulled back and the only way I could get her to slow down was to pull her head around. She is however making improvements, she isn’t going around the arena with her ears pinned flat trying to bite anyone, and she hasn’t reared up at all lately eitherWhat Shelby learned this week: Being next to me is a good spot to be in, to listen to me when there are other horses loose in the arena, To play the Sideways game, leg pressure on one side means to move over not go faster, to walk in circles by following leg pressure and corrections from reins, to go over the jump, to walk over multiple ground poles.
March 29-April 3rd
Monday night I went out to play with Shelby, It has been awhile since I have been out there at a different time than usual and she was acting very different. I don’t know if it was because it was about the time she was going to fed or just because of the different time. I had a hard time driving her to the green barn compared to usual because she was being hyper alert and paying attention to everything but me. Once we got in the arena she was doing better, but was still jumping at every little sound. While riding her at a walk she started to trot and then lope really fast. She was very bucky Monday, but a different kind of buck than last week because it isn’t to try and get out of going, I am not sure what it means because she seems to be enjoying going fast. We worked on walking over a little jump today, and she did so well! This was difficult for her and me last week because I wasn’t able to keep my energy up to keep her going, and she was a little unsure whether she could actually go over it. Every time she made an attempt I would reward her, and then ask again and she got her first two legs over, and I rewarded that, and then she got her back two legs over that. I could tell that she was feeling good about that just because of the way she was moving after that. I also worked on having her move her shoulders and hind quarters over. She does well with moving her shoulders over, and for the first time she actually moved her hindquarters away from the pressure I applied. Tuesday Shelby was her normal self again while driving in. She was listening to me very well while playing the driving game in the barn. Today the TA gave her some bute before to see if maybe the reason she was bucking was because of pain. We made two big accomplishments today, I was able to drive her over the jump from the ground. I myself have never been able to get her to walk over the jump from the ground, but she did it multiple times today! Then I was finally able to get her to go over the bridge again. She has been over it once before when I first started working with her, but since then I haven’t been able to get her to go over it because she would go around it. This time I decided to be more patient in my time and just keep trying, it seemed like it was going nowhere because she would try to walk around it. But I did the same thing I did with Black jack and rewarded her for each thing I asked her to do, and eventually she put one foot on the bridge! Then when I asked her for more she jumped on the bridge and right off, that was more than she has done in weeks! After that we went to something else for awhile and then came back to the bridge, this time when I asked her to go over the bridge she walked right up there and stood on the top for awhile.
We also worked with a partner in class to figure out some things, I told Raquel about how she goes faster and faster and she asked if I am tense when she starts going, and even though I try not to be I think I am. This time when I was walking Shelby and asked her for a faster walk and she started trotting and loping I really tried to relax and slowly and gradually pull her back, and it worked! I am not sure if the difference is me, the bute or both.Thursday Shelby was doing well on the ground, she has learned that it is okay to go over the jump while I am on the ground and also to go over the bridge. It seemed like she was started to get annoyed with me so Instead of asking her to do a bunch of things I decided to really play with her, we found a volleyball and she enjoyed sniffing it and chasing it. She would roll it with her nose or kick it and then go after it again. We worked on walking over the jump and Shelby would not go over it she was trying to walk away from it, so Twitchell helped to react faster and get her to move faster. I had been doubling up on my reins to try to direct her rather than sliding my hand down the rein. I am finally starting to understand how to run my reins through my hands. Once I was quicker Shelby listened to what I was asking her to do and we went over the jump. Shelby started to go off into a lope and I again gradually brought her down. We were working on doing circles to prepare for our final and we’d be riding along nicely and then all of a sudden she’d charge, bite or kick at another horse. I was trying to trot or lope her in a circle, and she must have kicked up or bucked because all I knew was I wasn’t on a horse anymore and I was either going to hit the wall or the ground. Fortunately I hit the ground which still hurt. Twitchell got on her her and rode her around, she was loping even though he wasn’t asking her to and still trying to get after the other horses. I noticed that he was a lot faster to react to her than I was so she wasn’t able to get the other horses. I still don’t understand what her problem is, and I wonder if maybe the bute did make a difference on Tuesday.
Friday I went out to see Shelby Twice, in the morning we just did ground work which went really well. In the afternoon there were only 1 or 2 other horses in the arena. She was much happier than she had been on Thursday. She was trotting very nicely and we even went over the jump at a trot several times. By the end she seemed to start getting a little mad at me, she turned her head and tried to bite me. That made me wonder if there might be some sort of pain issue, or if maybe she was just angry. We ended at a good point for riding, she was trotting nicely and slowed to a stop well.
What Shelby learned this week: To be driven over the bridge and jump at a walk, to move hindquarters away from pressure while I was on her, read my body energy when asked to slow down from lope to trot, to stay with me while playing at liberty.
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