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Yup yup. Well today taught a riding lesson, and rode Belle! So I felt horrible when I realized how long it has been since I've ridden Belle, and considering she gets very rough around the edges after just a day or 2 without being ridden I was kinda nervous. I played with her on the ground and got some of the naughtiness out before riding, lol. We played online instead of liberty. We need to forget about liberty for about a week. I am losing her mind at liberty and I need the safety net of the rope for a little while to get her more prepared. So after playing online I put on her hackamore and hopped on. She wasn't too happy about me mounting at first but after lots of repitition she calmed down. When I did my final mount I used a mounting block. She didn't get mad that time. Which either means, 1. Her back was hurting when I mounted from the ground, or 2. She had finally gotten over herself and I just happened to be using the mounting block at that time. Knowing Belle it was probably #2... lol. So when I first got on she wasn't being horrible, but wasn't being very nice. She was biting my feet like crazy and being extremely defiant. Nothing big though... I used my handy dandy savvy string and she happened to run into that little popper everytime she went to bite my foot.. she decided it wasn't so much fun biting my feet afterall. I rode her up the fenceline at a trot, then came back at a walk and walked over to Lizzy. We hung out there for a minute then I asked her to leave. She made it VERY clear she was NOT going to be leaving Lizzy... mmhmm... Well I told that little filly as kindly as possible (I used my phases, cross my heart!) that she WAS leaving Lizzy. So we went through a little foot biting tantrum, then she got the funniest expression... she was like "umm.. umm.. this isn't working.. what can I do!" then the lighbulb turned on, and she popped up in the air. So we stood there for a minute. She only did a little bitty half rear... it didn't even scare ME , so you know it was extremely little! (the littlest things scare me). So... I just kept pushing her on and ignored it. She realized it was SOOO easy to do what I wanted instead of what she wanted!!! :P So there we were, walking along, having the time of our lives. I didn't feel like I was training, I felt like I was riding, which was a great feeling. We weaved some trees, trotted ALOT, and stopped to see the cows. She only had 1 or 2 defiant moments and they were "moooommm.. nooo..." and I gave her phase one "don't do that belle" and she cut it out as soon as I did that. Then we trotted all the way across the entire field to Lizzy, and stopped there for a minute. It was soo fun trotting her all the way across the field without her even THINKING about breaking gait!! Sounds little but it's a big threshold for me in being a good enough leader to ask her to do that, and for her in being a partner and being willing to do that! Then we left Lizzy, circled the pasture again doing walk/trot transitions, and ended our ride at the roundpen. It was so sweet, I took off her hackamore and she just buried her head in my chest and sighed. I think she likes me a whole lot better when I am willing to step up and be a leader and give her boundries. She is a bossy girl, but her life is so much easier when she just cuts the crap and is willing to give my ideas a try. And when she does that I'm willing to give her ideas a go as well ;) So it was a great ride and the weather was perfect! We got our couches in the mail today!! We are getting them assembled and they are almost done. They are pretty sweet. I got my mp3 too. My old one died on me.. they had a refurb on sale so I got that and so far I love it! It hasn't even been 12hrs though.. so we'll see how it goes. I taught a riding lesson this morning that went very, very well. I think that is about all of today's highlights. I'm going ice skating tomorrow so I am sure I will be back with lots to report tomorrow evening!! :) -Carolyn and Bella.. the best horse to ever walk the face of the earth... |
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