Last day at the rescue
Firstly, long story short, I had to leave the rescue I was working at. I have a tripped planned to visit my family in October and my holiday request was denied. It's a real shame because I'd totally fallen in love with the horses and so many of the people. This was the case for myself and the other part time trainer and were given very little choice. However, I've made some amazing friends I will most certainly keep in touch with and the whole experience was a valuable and very rewarding one so I have no regrets! I'm going to miss my little munchkin 'Gemma' so much.
Learning 'reining'
My friend Tina has been teaching me how to ride western on her reining schoolmaster 'Rain'. It's very different to what I'm used to and it takes a while to get your head around the idea of riding with such long reins but I'm starting to get the feel of it. We've been practising the last few weeks as I'm taking her to a reining clinic this weekend! I'm so excited and feel so lucky Tina's has taken the time to teach me and given me this opportunity! I've even learnt for to spin this week!!!
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| Beautiful 'Rain' out on the trails |
Arianna and I worked on our porcupine game and mirror me but it was such a hot day, both of us weren't really feeling it so I gave her a bath instead.
Day 17
Cindy, who is a parelli instructor at my stables, kindly game me a lesson. As I suspected I needed a bit of a kick up the backside and Cindy politely did this, encouraging me not to be afraid to go to phase 4 when necessary. Arianna became more and more confident being further away from me and we practised backing up to the end of the 12ft line in different directions. We also worked on keeping her attention, and reminding her that, even though other things are interesting, Mummy is the most interesting! By the end I was full of confidence and so was Arianna!
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| Arianna's first platts! |
In the following sessions we continued to practise what we had worked on with Cindy. I used blocks to give me a visual aid and practised backing Arianna up between them in different directions. We also started to work on changes of rein in the circle game.
Day 20
Arianna and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and investigated some new driveways and mail boxes together. As even she was so well behaved and un-phased, even when 2 large dogs ran right up to the fence next to us and barked loudly at us.
Day 21 and 22
Arianna and I played the squeeze game with a line of blocks laid out with a gap in the middle. We gradually made the gap smaller and smaller until there was no gap left. First time she stopped and looked confused and then kind of stepped over the blocks, dragging some of them with her. Second time, she stepped over them cleanly and third time she added a little more effort and trotted over. We played at this on both reins practising our changes of rein at the same time.
Day 23 and 24
Now we had our changes of rein going pretty well, I started to work on the figure of 8. At first Arianna was over reactive each time I asked her to change direction but she very quickly worked out the game and by the second day, would calmly switch direction just with me pointing the other way! I will try to get some video next time, but mostly when I'm there, there is no one else around!
Day 25
I introduced the saddle to Arianna. She spent ages sniffing it and looking at it. We used a saddle pad first to practise putting it over her and taking it off. Once she was really relaxed about me flapping the saddle pad over her neck, back and butt, we moved on to the saddle. This went very smoothly and it wasn't long before I was putting it over and off of her back. Once it was securely tightened, we went for a walk together around the arena. All was going swimmingly and then she moved quickly and the feel of the saddle scared her and she did a few laps of the arena before she slowed down and caught her breathe. I went over to her and made a big fuss of her and then we did some more walking, side by side until she was calm again. We played some of our usual games, keeping it really simple and I gave her lots of praise before we finished.
Day 26
Today I had David to help me and we spent the best part of an hour, using the saddle pad and then the saddle and putting it off and on, playing a lot of approach and retreat and reading her body language accordingly. David was such a super helper and it was so nice to work with Arianna together. Once Arianna was wearing the saddle and the girth was securely fastened, we played a few games just in walk and Arianna was superb. I even encouraged a few steps of trot on the circle and when this felt strange to her with the saddle on instead of running off, she just stopped. I was so proud of her.
Day 27
It was pretty windy this day but I'd arranged to take Arianna for a walk with Jackie, who recently adopted Junior from the rescue I worked at. This was the first time she'd taken Junior out of the ranch. Both Arianna and Junior were perfectly behaved, wandering along beside us like dogs, taking in the scenery, matching the rhythm of our feet whilst Jackie and I chatted away. It was lovely.
Day 28
Arianna and I played in the round pen with the saddle again. She was so much more relaxed and it took about 15 minutes of putting the saddle on and off before she was truly relaxed with it. We didn't have much time this day so after a few quick walk exercises, I encouraged her to have a little trot. Again, with the strange feeling of the saddle, she stopped after a few strides. I encouraged her back to trot each time she walked, and gradually she became more confident until she was trotting a couple of circles both directions in a more relaxed way. Very proud Mummy!
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