Well, I got two rides in since Thursday, and I have to say - they were the polar opposite of each other. That mare does not have the slightest bit of predictability. You literally get on and wait to find out what kind of day it is going to be.
Thursday night I hopped on, warmed her up, and then decided to tag along with Robyn and Tori, who were doing conditioning work around the lane. We have an incredible mile-long lane that borders the farm with various terrain to do conditioning work. I usually avoid the lane like the plague with Delilah, especially if it involves going faster than a walk. There have been too many hairy incidents in the big wide world of the lane...
Well, Thursday night I put on my big girl pants and asked to tag along. I have to admit, my heart was pounding most of the first trip around the lane. Especially when I realized that even though Delilah was throwing out a huge trot with massive extension, she would still have to canter periodically to keep up with the 16.2 huge-strided geldings leading the way. Let me say one thing - previous attempts at cantering out on the lane have ended up in a strung-out head-flipping freak attack, so this was looking scary.....But by the time we go halfway around, I realized she was totally with me. She was listening to my seat, she was coming back to a trot when I asked her to, and we were having a blast. We went a second time around the lane, trotting most of the time, cantering a few times, and the whole time I had glorious visions of galloping cross country on the powerful little mare beneath me.
Delilah glistening with sweat after working HARD on the lane!!!
I gave her Friday off because the conditioning work was a LOT compared to what she has been doing lately. Then Saturday I had a massive attack of LAZINESS and ended up not even going to the barn. Sometimes you need to go to brunch, lay around, take naps, watch movies, and nurse kittens....Yes, that's right, nurse kittens. Because on Friday the 13th, LB (who everyone SWEARS was a boy kitten) had kittens. She was lying in the tack room with one kitten, trying to deliver the second and obviously having trouble, so I took her home to look after her. It was a rough weekend. The second kitten was stillborn. A few hours later, we found a third kitten. They were trying hard to nurse, but didn't seem to be getting it, so I bottle fed them through the night. They did fine all day Saturday, and then Sunday we lost both of them - one overnight, and the other one in the afternoon. It was heartbreaking. So we had two tearful burials in the backyard, and now Mama Cat is resting and hopefully recuperating.
So I tacked up Sunday for a ride with mid-level expectations. It was warm, but not too hot, she had two days off, so I planned to get on and see how she was that day. UGH. She would headflip, then trot around like a million bucks....headflip some more, then go around looking like a million dollar hunter school horse.....Back and forth, back and forth, for no discernable reason. At one point she seemed to have calmed down, so we hopped a little crossrail. She proceeded to canter off whipping her head from side to side. Of course I couldn't stop on that note, so I hopped a different crossrail and got a quiet canter off and a halt transition at the end of the arena. I tried to go back to a little flatwork afterwards, but it was disastrous. I pulled out every trick in my arsenal, but could not find the solution to the head flipping that particular day. I finally had to get three good steps and quit.
So, the summary of the last few days - we are one for one. :-) Here's to hoping for a better ride next time....
Thursday night I hopped on, warmed her up, and then decided to tag along with Robyn and Tori, who were doing conditioning work around the lane. We have an incredible mile-long lane that borders the farm with various terrain to do conditioning work. I usually avoid the lane like the plague with Delilah, especially if it involves going faster than a walk. There have been too many hairy incidents in the big wide world of the lane...
Well, Thursday night I put on my big girl pants and asked to tag along. I have to admit, my heart was pounding most of the first trip around the lane. Especially when I realized that even though Delilah was throwing out a huge trot with massive extension, she would still have to canter periodically to keep up with the 16.2 huge-strided geldings leading the way. Let me say one thing - previous attempts at cantering out on the lane have ended up in a strung-out head-flipping freak attack, so this was looking scary.....But by the time we go halfway around, I realized she was totally with me. She was listening to my seat, she was coming back to a trot when I asked her to, and we were having a blast. We went a second time around the lane, trotting most of the time, cantering a few times, and the whole time I had glorious visions of galloping cross country on the powerful little mare beneath me.
Delilah glistening with sweat after working HARD on the lane!!!I gave her Friday off because the conditioning work was a LOT compared to what she has been doing lately. Then Saturday I had a massive attack of LAZINESS and ended up not even going to the barn. Sometimes you need to go to brunch, lay around, take naps, watch movies, and nurse kittens....Yes, that's right, nurse kittens. Because on Friday the 13th, LB (who everyone SWEARS was a boy kitten) had kittens. She was lying in the tack room with one kitten, trying to deliver the second and obviously having trouble, so I took her home to look after her. It was a rough weekend. The second kitten was stillborn. A few hours later, we found a third kitten. They were trying hard to nurse, but didn't seem to be getting it, so I bottle fed them through the night. They did fine all day Saturday, and then Sunday we lost both of them - one overnight, and the other one in the afternoon. It was heartbreaking. So we had two tearful burials in the backyard, and now Mama Cat is resting and hopefully recuperating.
So I tacked up Sunday for a ride with mid-level expectations. It was warm, but not too hot, she had two days off, so I planned to get on and see how she was that day. UGH. She would headflip, then trot around like a million bucks....headflip some more, then go around looking like a million dollar hunter school horse.....Back and forth, back and forth, for no discernable reason. At one point she seemed to have calmed down, so we hopped a little crossrail. She proceeded to canter off whipping her head from side to side. Of course I couldn't stop on that note, so I hopped a different crossrail and got a quiet canter off and a halt transition at the end of the arena. I tried to go back to a little flatwork afterwards, but it was disastrous. I pulled out every trick in my arsenal, but could not find the solution to the head flipping that particular day. I finally had to get three good steps and quit.
So, the summary of the last few days - we are one for one. :-) Here's to hoping for a better ride next time....
The good news is that you're getting good rides! Way to go...
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry about the kittens...
Aww, thank you so much! Yes, we are getting good rides - that is ALWAYS important!!!
ReplyDelete