September 24 2009
I had a rather interesting play time with Twosox. It started out with an "oh boy" moment. I had haltered Twosox and saddled him. He was doing really well until we were going up to the riding ring and suddenly Twosox took off bucking, and I mean he was bucking BIG. I let go of the rope, he ran down the road. So I went up to the riding ring and put the 22ft line and hackamore down by the time I was walking down the hill again to get Twosox he had turned around and was walking back. He came and stood beside me, he was breathing a little hard but he seemed okay. Then I saw that one of my stirrups were missing..... I looked around and saw that he was on the fence post.... we used to have a gate on the once side of the corral and the hinges that the gate hooked onto were still there. So when we were walking by the stirrup got caught on the the one hook, Twosox felt the pressure and feeling trapped, exploded.
Fortunately it was my english saddle so the stirrup just came off and everything was okay. We went up to the riding ring and I put everything back in place. For the first couple minutes we just stood there. Making sure that we were both relaxed before we started.
Then we went and did some circles. I wanted to make sure that Twosox had no buck left in him before I got on. He seemed to be okay until I asked him to do a change of direction and then he took off bucking. After that he was okay. We did lots of transitions. To make sure that Twosox could go fast then slow down and not get scarred or on adrenaline. At first Twosox had a hard time with this but then he started doing really well and got pretty connected. We played around with some cantering also. Twosox doesn't canter a lot [when we are playing or on his own] so it was interesting. I have to play around with getting an effective phase four but not scarring him. That will be interesting.
After that we did some Figure eights, Weaving, Touch it, jumping and sideways. Twosox did really well with all those. Then I realized that Twosox hadn't licked and chewed once so far so we took a rest. Twosox did a really small lick and chew so I just waited then after about 5 minutes he totally relaxed, he was yawning, licking and chewing, sighing, his head was low. It was great!!
Then I went to his feet. He did SO well. I was really proud of him. His front feet are really good. I am starting to recognize different parts of his foot and such. He let me pick of his back feet!!!! Now a thought just struck me that that might seem really simple. That Twosox let me pick out his back feet.... but that is okay. Because I know that it was without tension and that is big for Twosox.
After I I asked Twosox to put all four feet on the pedestal. It took a little while but he finally got it. Then asked him to stay there while I went and got my hackamore. He stayed there for a while but then got down and started walking towards me. So I politely asked him to get back up on the pedestal. Once he was back up there I put the hackamore on him. He stood really well. He lowered his head for me and everything!!! Then I went over to the fence and left him there again. This time he stayed longer but still got off the pedestal and came over again. So I asked him to climb back up. This time he licked and chewed over that. Hmmmm... a change. I had to leave once more to get my helmet and this time Twosox stayed the whole time!!!!! He looked at me but he didn't move his feet. It was interesting because then when I asked him to get off he didn't want to!!! :) I think he figured the puzzle out!! ;)
I then got on... but not before checking our lateral flexions ;) At one point we were walking down the rail and I asked Twosox to stop and he spun around and looked at the gate. Fortunately it was just Ruffy. I could feel that Twosox was tense so I got off. More for my sake than his. Then I got back on again. I would rather have to get back on again then fall off ;)
Once I was on again we did some point to point and follow the rail. Just to get Twosox's mind on me. He did really well with those. Twosox soon started to listen to my body more and my rein less. So that was good. We then did some Weaving, Sideways, and refined indirect and direct rein. When we were doing the direct rein I started to ask Twosox to move his weight back to his hind quarters and pivot. He had a really hard time with this. I didn't realize just how much Twosox has his weight on his forequarters! He couldn't pivot. I would release every time Twosox tried and after a little bit we got two steps!!
Then we just stood there for a while. Twosox licked and chewed then I got off. We didn't ride long but that was more for my sake. I am not unconfident about riding but I am just making sure that I end on a good note each ride.
It was interesting because Ruffian was still standing out side the riding ring, sleeping. I had let Twosox go but I hadn't opened the gate yet. Ruffy decided he wanted to roll so he went down, I was like "Hmmm I wonder if Twosox will roll too?" He did. A couple seconds later Twosox left me and went over to the really sandy spot in the riding ring and rolled. It is really interesting how the horses read into each others emotions!!
~K
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