Three Entries, No Waiting....

SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS IN THE PARK

We took advantage of the recent weather and made it a weekend of horses! We hauled out with all three horses. We set up the cones for Serpentine, Ride the Box and the L Box so we could change things up a bit. Groundwork (about 10 exercises) happened first. When we got improvements in these in comparison to our last session we moved on to the Riding exercises. We did another set (about 10) of exercises. Overall Cearra did great. She had a little sassy attitude when we first started riding but quickly came back to herself and behaved like a lady. Her trot transitions were really nice and her work on the various patterns was good. This winter was TOUGH on everyone. With so little opportunity to ride/train to a level that improved conditioning we ended up fighting just to maintain good weight and muscle tone. Still, given all of the challenges created by the weather Cearra retained most all of her skill set. We have a Workshop happening next weekend (Saturday) so this will be a good “test” of her condition and work ethic!

THE WORKSHOP

            The “theme” of the workshop was “Improving the Partnership” and so we did! Cearra still has issues with “new-to-her” horses in “her” arena. She acts like she is intimidated of them and loses focus a bit. This is the last remaining challenge in our journey. It is just going to take more miles and more exposure.

We did our usual warm up on the lead line to get the mind and body ready to learn! Then we dove into Groundwork!

• ·         Lunge for Respect #1 (circle, stop and look at me) and #2 (circle, slow down, change directions and circle).
• ·         Backing with Steady Pressure, WWWW, and Tapping the Air.
• ·         Yield the HQ #1
• ·         Yield the FQ.
• ·         Side Pass along the Fence.
• ·         Leading w/ Back Ups
• ·         Circle Driving
• ·         Turn and Go (incorporates a HQ yield, a FQ yield and impulsion)
• ·         Ground School Circles (incorporates FIVE exercises into one fluid movement).
• We then took a short water break and saddled up!

Under saddle we focused on “softness” and our feel and timing, giving back to the horse when we asked for something from the horse. For most of the Riders this was both a challenge (they never really gave back to the horse) and an epiphany (they realized it)! This was a Good Thing ™! We worked on the following riding exercises:

• ·         Forward, Back, Forward Transitions.
• ·         Yield HQ at Standstill.
• ·         Introduction to Rollbacks.
• ·         Yield FQ.
• ·         Forward, Back and Yield HQ.
• ·         Serpentine through Cones (two gaits).
• ·         Ground School Circles Under Saddle.
• ·         Side Pass along the Fence Under Saddle
• ·         Introduction Lateral Work though Cones.

People had some solid wins and saw real improvements in their communication and control with their horses. It was a very cool day! Lunch was AWESOME too!  Sloow BBQ’s pulled pork was on the menu!

CEARRA: This was a long day for her. She was pretty tired by the end of the day. We had a couple of sassy moments but she got over her “I am a Princess” attitude and tried her best. Even though she was not 100% cool with the other horses being in her arena she did relax more in a group setting. Overall she did nicely!

SETTING THE SEASONAL GOALS

Cearra in a nutshell:

She has been with us for almost nine (9) months. She was so out of shape and had a crappy attitude when we brought her home. She had not been worked with in a long time and had an “I’m a Princess” mindset. Reality shifted quite a bit on Day 1.

She is a totally different horse today!

She has GROWN in these last months. She is a solid 15.2 now. Of course the good diet and exercise probably helped. She is certainly a pretty girl. She gets lighter in the summer and darker in the winter.

Speaking of winter…this one was ROUGH on all the horses. So much rain and snow. We lost a good four months of training/conditioning. We struggled just to maintain her weight (she lost some because she grew over the winter) and muscle. So now we are playing “catch up” by adding more calories to her diet and doing everything we can to get her condition back. Add to this challenge that both Laurie and I are now working away from home quite a bit and we have only been able to train with Cearra twice a week. This means that we are on a slower path to getting her to new levels of fitness.

Also, with the demands on our time we have decided to market Cearra. Even though we KNOW she has amazing bloodlines and can do some pretty cool stuff we feel she is still “advanced green broke.” If she was just a little more finished we know that getting $5000.00 for her would not be unreasonable. Yet, our goal is always the well-being of the horse so given her “advanced green broke” status and our limited time to finish her off we will be asking $3000.00 firm. We will not be 5 panel testing her and will leave that up to her new family if they wish to breed her. We just want what is best for Cearra. She is a great horse who just needs more miles and more exposure to new places/horses/people. We figure $3000.00 will encourage interest for real, serious families who want to work with a well started horse. We will see,

So, the plan is to keep working the program, get her really fit and as polished up on her skills as we can. If she is with us at the end of the month she’ll go to the Spring Retreat which will expose her to lots of horses, cattle, new trails, new people and more!

That is Cearra in a nutshell right now.