So much energy!!!

Since I played with both Prince and Twosox yesterday I decided to play with Ruffian today. I haven't played with him in a while so I thought it would be fun. Fun isn't even enough to describe that horse!!! HE IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!

It took me a while to catch him. He was being rather playful. Much have been the weather because LBE are NEVER playful right??? Just joking. Ruffy is always ready to play. After I caught him it started to rain :( I didn't want to give up so we kept playing. Fortunately the rain stopped and it was the perfect temperature to play.

When we got up to the riding ring I let Ruffy get some of his energy out. I normally just let him run around in circles but we do lots of transitions, change of directions, sometimes we will do a traveling circle game, I will throw obstacles in his way etc so he never is just running around in circles. The nice thing is that while Ruffy is running he isn't pulling on the rope. It makes it so much nicer for my arms!!!! Even when I asked him to gallop today he kept the slack in the rope. It was great!!!

I love watching Ruffy running and playing! He always looks like he is having so much fun!! After Ruffian had run around a little bit and I knew he could probably keep his mind on something a little more challenging. We then went over to one of the barrels and I asked Ruffy to jump it. At first he just walked through it but then he got really interested and tried really hard to figure out the puzzle. After a couple tries he got it! He jumped the barrel from a stand still too!!!

After that we did some figure 8's. Ruffy did them PERFECTLY!!! I think it really helped that my energy was up and we did them really fast. Ruffy then started asking questions and was SO interested and willing to try for me. One thing I really had to make sure I didn't do was make him wrong for something. At the beginning of our play time I caught my self doing that. But it got easier ans easier just to take what he offered and make it my idea.

There were two barrels lying near the fence. So I put one in front of the other and asked Ruffy to jump them. To be honest I didn't really think that Ruffy could jump the barrel from a stand still seeing as it was really wide but Ruffy never stops amazing me, he jumped it, from a stand still, like it as nothing at all. He even made good air on it!!!

So after that we worked on some zone 5 driving with one rein. We did it a lot the fence so it made it a lot easier. Ruffian did so well. I am really proud of him. We walked around did some back up, turned and more all with me in zone 5. Ruffy listened so well and was really in tune with me.

I decided to try an interesting squeeze game and I asked Ruffy to back between the barrels and the tractor tire that is standing up and at the same time over the log. The gap was about 1ft wide. Ruffy backed up to the barrels but wasn't sure about backing between the barrels and the tire so I sent him around and asked him to come through the gap first then back through it. He did much better and understood what I wanted. The whole time he was asking me questions and trying so hard!!!

Since everything was going to well I decided to get on and ride around for a bit. Ruffy wasn't to sure about me lying across him, he would back up a couple steps then stop, so every time he stopped I would slid off. I didn't rush it since Ruffy is still technically only green broke. After about 4 times Ruff stood still while I mounted. He did so well. We stood there for a little bit then we just started walking around. Ruffy seemed relaxed..... seemed being the key word. After I had ridden him around a bit and gotten little success. Well we had some success but Ruffy was really stiff, tight, wasn't listening to pressure, would only walk a couple steps then stop, our lateral flexion wasn't very good. He would bend but I felt like I was more pulling his head around. So I stopped and re-assessed the situation. As we were standing there I was looking at Ruffy and it hit me. He had pretty much shut down and gone internal. Yes that is right.... the playful, smart, sensitive, confident, fast LBE on the ground was now tense, slow, tight, non responsive RBI. Hmmmmm..... I should have figured it out sooner then I did because in new situation or in learning situations Ruffy can go internal.

So with this new information I changed my strategy. I slowed right down and waited. If I needed to help Ruffy through something I did and we made really quick progress. Ruffian started to respond really well when I asked him to turn, go or back up, our lateral flexion be MUCH lighter and all in all Ruffy seemed a live!!! Before he seemed like he was just walking around aimlessly not really sure what he was doing.

We ended by standing on the pedestal. I was so proud of Ruffy. I am hoping to be able to ride him more and get his confidence up. I think that once he gets used to being ridden more he will not be so unconfident.

I had so much fun playing with Ruffy!!! I can't wait to do it again!!!!

~K