Monday 19 March 2012

First Hack

Sunday morning I was up bright and early after a nice sleepless night on the couch, the fight with Boyfriend carried over till the next day and because I am stubborn I didn’t want to sleep in the super comfy warm king size bed with him, instead I took the couch and slept all of 10 minutes last time I do that.
I had left G in the barn the night before because it was raining most of the day and was suppose to snow that night so I figured he would enjoy being in his nice warm stall. I brushed him out and again was covered by the end of it in hair, and muck from his stall. There was a lesson going on in the arena so I figured G could benefit from learning some patience so we went into the arena to watch the lesson. He proceeded to nip at my hands and pull on parts of my jacket and as soon as I would move slightly he would toss his head up as high as he could in hopes I couldn’t reach his face to give him a bit of a tap on the nose, this “game” continued for the hour long lesson… I’m not sure who won at the end of it but he looked pretty pleased with himself (he doesn’t by any means try to bite me he will use his teeth to pull on parts of my clothes he knows he can get without catching my skin and if he isn’t sure he just uses his lips.)
After the lesson we started lunging he was fantastic counter clock wise but I could not get him to go clock wise. So after a little fighting I was able to force him to go counter clockwise again for a few minutes until he was ready to listen to me so eventually I managed to get him to go clockwise.
I tacked him up and got on to be joined shortly after by 3 other riders in the arena. G did very well he was a little nervous at first and tossed his head around but I think that may be from my bit, I may need to invest in one that is a little wider and perhaps a little softer on his mouth. I gave him more of the reins and he stopped which supports my bit theory. We worked on our bending at a walk and did a little bit of posting trot with some transitions walk-trot and trot-walk all with the 3 other riders in the arena doing their own thing. After about 30 minutes they mentioned they were going to go on a short ride outside… which I couldn’t pass up.
Other than having to get someone to hold G so I could get on outside he did fantastic on our first “hack” of the year. He was super relaxed the entire time, went into the ditch when asked without hesitating even through puddles after he looked down to assess the situation. We rode behind the other three riders so I could focus on staying calm relaxed and allowing him to take everything in without asking much.  I believe I even felt him take some contact with the bit for a little bit (I’m not 100% sure about this though something just felt different but good). He got a little worried when the other horses got a bit ahead of us but other than that he did fantastic I was so proud of him, the other riders were shocked with how well he did for being so green.
Days like that make me thankful to have such an amazing horse that is perfect for me in every way. Its these days I need to remember when I am feeling down and that I made a mistake getting a young horse.  I love my horse!

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