Adventures With Horsemanship: NEW PLACES with our NEW FLAME!

DAY 3 Morning – Since today is a “work from home day” for Laurie and I and the weather is beautiful we hope to make this a two-session day for our new Flame (Annie)! This morning will be a Round Pen session with a review of what we worked on yesterday and a little Lunge for Respect 1. This evening is The Downunder Brumbies Spur of the Moment Ride at the El Dorado County Fairground Arena. It will be all about new groundwork exercises with a saddle on. Should be an interesting day!

We changed things up today since we felt we had established some respect/trust. We did lots of rubbing her all over and then flexing (lateral and opposite side exercises). Desensitize to the rope exercises and then moved into the impulsion part of the session. Marked improvement over yesterday in all three gates and transitions/direction changes so we moved on. No need to drill if things are going well at this point. Refinement will happen later. Review of all four (4) methods of Backing. “Tap the Air” is still her weakest one so we will be focusing on this more. We worked on improving Yield the Hindquarters and got some improvement there. We worked on Lunge for Respect 1 and again had some improvement. Then, because we were feeling good we introduced Turn and Go and Sending. She caught on pretty quick. Then we fit her bit/bridle to her feminine head and made sure the reins were at a good length. We ended with lots of loving and rubbing combined with flexing in the bridle. Really productive session. Being with the other horses has really helped her mood overall too. Tonight we haul out and see what can be seen!

Evening – We loaded up all three of the horses and headed over to the El Dorado County Fairgrounds for our weekly “Spur of the Moment Ride” with the Nor-Cal chapter of The Downunder Brumbies. Once we unloaded and groomed everyone up, –we noted that Annie seemed a little sore on her right front foot. Her hooves are pretty flat and even though the farrier did work on her a couple of days before we brought her home she still seems to lack the deeper concave to her hoof that we see in most horses. Shoes may be in her future.

So with this in mind, we planned to keep things easy even though the arena has some really nice footing. Since it was a new lace for the new girl we let the three of them run about the arena (we were the only ones there at the time). It was a warm night and no one seemed overly inclined to run without motivation. After play time was over, we placed Ronan into one of the pens at the end of the arena (he thinks it is his hotel room). Annie got to get tacked up and fitted to make sure all of our gear was going to work well for her. She had some itchy feet when we began to saddle up because her “boyfriend” Ronan was not near her. She calmed down and we got her tacked up (totally forgot to take pictures). We did some desensitizing and flexing which went fine. Then we went to work on Lunge for Respect 1 in the arena (on the line). Our plan went to hell in a handbasket. After the first correction to get two eyes and get the yield in the hind end she chose to spin herself up. Let me tell you this is one athletic little horse! She worked up one heck of a sweat! Lots of loping on the line and lots of changes of direction and backing. She would not stand still for desensitizing so the feet got hustled. When we got four really nice hindquarter yields and smooth transitions we went back to desensitizing, flexing, backing and yields. So, note to self…lots of active groundwork when we go to new places for a while. We have to keep in mind that: A) we have only had her for four (4) days/ B) That she has not traveled very much in her life. C) She has worked more in the first four days with us (and learning a new language too) than she has in a long, long time.

When the wins surpassed the challenges we stopped the session, took all her tack off and gave her a good rub down before putting her in one of the arena pens to relax, hydrate and think about the lesson. She didn’t like being “away” from Ronan at first (even though she could see him the whole time) but eventually she calmed down and relaxed…until some clove cigarette smoking post-teens came up to her (they were in dark colors so she could only smell them until they came into the light). She was having nothing to do with them and was all about being near me in her pen. I asked them to put out the cigarette (it is like smoking near any athlete in my opinion which is to say “not cool”.) and then I helped her to meet the new folks. She was not amused. As we walked back across the arena to the trailer we tried to see how well she would lead from beside as her previous human said was good at it! She was! She stopped when I stopped, she stopped. When I jogged, she jogged. When I back, she backed. Very cool. Yes, Ronan and Argent were rock stars too.

She has had seven "lessons" and been hauled three times in four days. Now comes some time off to let her foot heal up and her to settle in more. We’ll probably haul over to the arena tonight but she just gets to be loved on and hang out. At least that is the plan.

Desensitize & Intro to Turn & Go