This Past Winter

Over the winter we had a friend stay with us while she was between jobs. She has a lot of experience with horses, including off-track Thoroughbreds. She was here during the coldest days of the winter, although not the iciest. She brought Caleb and I out to the barn and got us back on our horses!

Ebony had bucked Caleb off two times in the arena last summer. What we found was that the saddle had become too small as Ebony grew in girth since we got Dreamer and they shared hay. (Hay is now separated between them.) So the saddle pinched at the withers. Jodi worked slowly with Caleb and got his confidence back up. It is really a gift.

Another gift is the saddle we got from a friend (Thank you again, Chris!) which fits Ebony very well and can also be used with Dreamer if we want to saddle him Western. This saddle also makes it much easier for Scott to ride, as the other saddle we had was a youth saddle! (Ouch!)

What I learned riding Dreamer in sub-zero temperatures is that his acting up is mostly based in fear, = lack of confidence in himself and in his rider. It can be interpreted as rebellion, like when one of my kids rebels over a tough math question. Dreamer is still green. He does not give to the bit very much. He does not bend. All of these things can be worked on.

His reaction to fear and lack of confidence is to want his own way, his own answers. His way of expressing it is to try to boss me with mini-bucks and major rearing and bit evasion.

The first thing my friend observed was that I treated Dreamer like glass. I did not have enough rein or leg contact. I have always had light hands and it shows in our pony's mouth. We've owned her since her birth and I trained her. She responds to the slightest touch on the bit.

Dreamer, meanwhile, has had jockeys hanging off of his mouth. And not too much leg, to know anybody was there. Our friend told me to have more mouth contact, and grab him with my legs, too, to let him know I am there when he runs into his fears. Dreamer had nobody at the other end of the phone when I rode him. He felt completely at a loss when he was afraid.

Last summer, he dumped me with a rear-- I came off on the way down, when my left stirrup slid off the saddle. If have never really understood what his problem was. If it was about Ebony, he'd have run to the end of the arena closest to home. But he did not.

As I was laying on the ground making horrible noises trying to re-inflate my lungs, he stayed by me. We joke that he was thinking, "Oh sh*t!" In retrospect, I think he reared because he was afraid to be that far away from the barn (2 fields) and had no communication from me saying, "It's alright; I am here." Even though I was on his back!

Another thing my friend observed was that when he acted up, it felt to me like he was going down, and my first reaction was to throw the reins away for him to stabilize his head on his own.

Well, I am not into making excuses for bad behavior, no matter the cause. I have had to do away with a lot of the psycho-analyzing and just discipline whomever it is, man/boy or horse. I figure they can psycho-analyze themselves while thinking about the consequences they just received.

When I rode Dreamer over the winter and he started acting up, I turned him and gave him serpentines. I took a hold of his mouth and gave him more leg. When he acted up another time, I drove him into a 5 foot snowbank. Another time when he was getting ready to rear, I popped him between his ears a few times until he stopped.

The more I tell him what to do and what is okay and what is not, the more he will respect me and have confidence in my leadership. If he gets no signals, then he will do what a horse does: assume leadership and try and enforce it.

Seeing Dreamer's behavior as based in fear helps me to be less fearful. I thought he was getting mean! He is not mean. He is scared. Now I call him my 'big dufuss' and tell him to get his butt back in line. He is, of course, much more calmer already. He needed a leader, all along.

We are not all the way there yet, but the weather has (mostly) broken, the sun is shining more, and all the snow is melted and dried up for the most part. I am working on a schedule that lets me teach half, 3/4-days and have 2 hours for the horses.

Dreamer had been much better on the ground and we will still lunge and do things like that, but mostly, I need to be in the saddle, for both our sakes.

Ebony as well-- she is really coming along; my main goal with her is de-sensitizing her, she is more spooky than Dreamer because he has been many different places and she's had only us and our home. She also needs to learn to carry a rider at a canter. She experimented with it this past winter. I forgot we were on a plowed snowy dirt road, she did great, and I am lucky we did not go down when she stopped.

Our friend tells me Dreamer is a very sane horse. He got hung up on the leadrope tie (between his ears, I moved the tie higher after that) and she said he just stood there, waiting for rescue.

To be perfectly honest, when I think or talk about that horse, my heart swells. But do not let him know that-- my friend also said that he has eyes only for me, which is helpful.

He turned 8 in March, Ebony turned 10 yesterday, and I have a bale of shavings for them to roll in. Happy trails for everyone and remember what my friend says, "Just get up there and ride!"

(Chris, let us know what goes on with your fast-walking guy!)
:-)