INTERLUDE: SHOWING FREYA
Readers of this journal are probably screaming “WTF” and
“Are You Kidding!” Truth! Freya has had THREE (3) sessions with us with this
morning being #3. We got a call from Freya’s owner asking if WE could show
Freya to a potential family. Why? Well the owner could not be there so….
Sigh. Our usual rules - Don’t like to show a horse that is
not ours to anyone without the owner being there. Don’t EVER show a horse with
just three lessons with it. Just a recipe for ugly times.
Still, we did it. Spent almost three hours with us. Have to
say that Freya surprised us in a very good way. Since all we know Freya knows
is what we have worked with her on that was the basis for the session. We
talked about her personality as we have observed over the last 3.5 days. We ended
up working with Freya for session #2 that evening and ended up teaching potential
new family – they knew next to NOTHING about actually productive groundwork –
about position, intent, energy, focus and feel/timing. Simply put these folks
did not really listen and watch as we worked with Freya and we had to repeat
ourselves a lot. Never a good sign!
We showed the potential family how she moved out, performed “ground
school circles” which combines FIVE exercises in one and some other cool stuff
that really captures her mind and gets her tuned in to her human. Still all we
heard from the family was “ride” and even though we repeatedly told them that
she was saddled once five days ago she really has not been ridden/worked much
at all. Normally this is a “sign” that riding should probably wait. For
accident-waiting-to-happen and high maintenance/high drama people this means “get
on anyway.” Oh well, they signed the waiver. Freya took the saddle without
issue. She does have issues with the bit currently. She fussed with the bit and
didn't want to take it at first but I coaxed her with some rubs and mellow
advance/retreat exercises. Under saddle she was pretty good at the walk. She
was less confident at the trot and a little bit forward (fear/nerves). I think
it is a confidence thing but she really tried. We had to have the rider loosen
up on the reins a little (English thing) and that helped Freya feel less
confined. Had to, once again, repeat ourselves several times to get the point
across. They tooled all over the place and even cruised by some of our
obstacles without too much fuss at all. This was a major improvement over our
first meeting. Then the daughter, who had a horse related wreck earlier this
year got on. The daughter mounted from the ground and from a tree stump. Freya
was a little worried about the tree stump but quickly got settled once I helped
the daughter find her "confident happy place." All in all it went
well. Freya really needs MUCH more productive groundwork and more confidence
building under saddle. She needs someone who KNOWS how to do this or will
commit to getting the help that everyone needs. When we pressed for a
commitment to engage in real, productive training we didn’t get a satisfactory
answer. All we heard was “showing” and “maybe we could lease” and other
indicators that this was NOT going to be a good fit.
We shared our impressions with the owner.
Looks like Freya is staying with us for a little while
longer.
We crafted a little video the following say. The owner was
present and was pretty amazed at the improvement in Freya, from performance to
attitude, for our first visit not five days ago. Check out the link below.
Video of Freya-Groundwork:
https://youtu.be/C5GPaZmiwmg
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