Make The Right Thing Easy....

QOTD: "Making the Right Thing Easy, the Wrong Thing Difficult!
QOTD 2: Cearra is Gaelic for "raging jackass."

If you have been “doing the horsey thing” at any time during the last decade you have heard, in some form, “make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult.” In short this means that if the horse gives an honest try and acts like a “lady or gentleman” then life is easy with little pressure. However if the horse acts like a “jackass” then life includes more work!

Today we had to meet our farrier at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds to replace a show that Ronan lost over the weekend. So we decided to purchase a ride pass and work the horses in the covered arena as is was (surprise) open for riding! Normally it is booked by groups so this was a great opportunity.

Needless to say Cearra was greatly in need of some real skill development work under saddle and on the ground SAFELY at all three gaits (something we have not been able to do in months because of the weather). Since the footing was nicely groomed we knew we could safe to work on the 25’ long line as well as our usual ground work and then progress to under saddle work.

She was NOT amused. She made sure we knew she was not amused too.

Sometimes a horse has to regress (which is NOT FUN) in order to move forward. Sometime you have to go through the ugly to get to the good. We had some ugly today. We had some good today. Even though we did a fair amount of groundwork (obviously not enough or not intense enough) she was still a sassy girl under saddle at anything faster than a walk. Granted had been a pretty long time since we were at this particular arena and there were other “new to her” horses there as well.

The majority of the ride just sucked. It felt like Day 1 under saddle. She did stand still at the mounting block. She flexed laterally. She back up and she walked out when asked nice and calm. Lulled into a false sense of security I asked for a trot.  She went into her “drunken monkey style kung-fu” which was not fun. Sigh. Corrections were made. She protested again and again. At one point I got the “all four hooves off the ground vertical jump… land…then rear up maneuver.” Stuck the saddle and then REALLY got after her.  Which we could have got video! She did LOTS of circles at the trot…tiny circles (no brace in this mare at all), direction change/roll backs, schooling circles (see this journal for a description of this exercise), transitions, backing (lots of backing) and more. It was a workout for everyone.

Needing to end on a win we did some schooling circles at the trot and then the walk. Those went well. Then we cooled off with a cruise on a loose rein. That went well. Then it was a stop/back up/ move forward at the walk drill a few times before we called it quits. She was TIRED! Still she really tried to so what I asked at the end without any sass of fight. That is when we quite. I admit I called her Alpo several times and was less than happy with her.

Note to self. This much time off at this stage in her training cycle is not a good idea. Not much we can do about the weather but we have got to figure out to get her in new places and under saddle more this season. Tuesday morning the truck goes in for work so no hauling. Will work at home. The rest of the week is RAIN!!! Sunday we head to Ione for a horsemanship practice. At a covered arena in Ione.  Let’s hope we do not get a replay of today’s performance. She did seem pretty contrite at the end of the session.

Some days horses make you feel like a million bucks.

Some days horse make you feel like $1.95.

Want fries with that?

Tomorrow is a new day!