moving along...

finally, real progress

fuzzy photo, indoors on a cold and cloudy day....rider up is CJ Wagoner

So I found that the trainer at my new barn actually agreed with me that fighting with this horse, hitting, kicking etc was a sure way to stay stuck in the same behavior. So she took a crack at Nina. Started riding 4 days a week, now down to 2, will go to 1 and stay there for a while. She spent almost 2 hours getting half a lap of trot out of Nina the first ride. Usual resistance, threatening to rear (although she has not actually reared since that one confrontation months ago), backing, stuck, violent head shaking etc etc etc. This is the stuff that is intended to intimidate the rider and it does intimidate me, especially since she feels so incredibly explosive. She feels more explosive than she ever acts, but the energy and anger running through her is like getting hit with a club.

I worked through all this at the walk and ended up with a cheerful, forward walk and the beginning of leg yielding and bending. When we started trotting we were back to ground zero and I was just so frustrated. So CJ has been working through it at the trot and now we have a (mainly) cheerful forward trot. Still sticky here and there and lots of resistance to lateral work, but without all the energy and anger. Nina feels more like she is going through the motions of what she knows rather than really wanting to wage all out war.

She is also going through bouts of being very sore over her back, the price you pay for getting in shape for the first time since her early race days. Hot vetrolin towels and polar fleece coolers seem to help a lot. The only real cure is to build muscle to carry the rider.

When I started riding her again after giving CJ a couple of weeks alone with her, Nina felt she needed to test me all over again, refusing even to walk. After that ride I was very discouraged, but apparently I passed the test because the next day she was very cheerful, forward and obedient for me.

Every horse teaches you something new.

horses are herd animals....

I had one hesitation in putting Nina at this new barn. The horses went out to pasture in mixed herds. I knew that she had been beaten up by the small herd of mares she lived with before I bought her. What I didn't know was what brought that on. It is not always the submissive one that gets beat up. Sometimes it is an instigator that starts fights he/she can't finish.

I needn't have worried. Nina integrated into the herd immediately, had two new best friends and an ardent admirer within a couple of days. In fact she was so attached to her new best friends that she was difficult to handle. Herd bound, screaming, pacing and rude and not eating well. She was too concerned with keeping track of everyone. Eventually she realized that going out with her new friends was routine and she calmed down.

Riding her only infrequently I was glad to see that she picked up right where we had left off in her training, also in her pissy attitude, which was diminished but not gone.

wow, what a lot has happened since I last posted....

Probably the biggest thing is that I moved Nina to a hunter/jumper barn with real turnout...real pasture...small herd...in at night.

I took some students to schooling shows at a small hunter/jumper barn last spring. It was an old, rundown barn with nice well established pastures that had recently been taken over by a trainer new to the area who was fixing it up a little at a time.

I had it in the back of my mind as a possible place for Nina, but I wanted to see how it progressed before I leaped in. Shortly after my last posting I reserved a stall for her and moved her in mid November.

I am a big believer in turnout for horses, and not dry lot or single turnout, but real turnout with pasture to graze and other horses to socialize with. There are risks involved, but the benefits well outweigh the risks, in my opinion.

So I moved her.....more later.

it's been a while...

Still progressing. I was having a nearly impossible time getting Nina to go forward in the hackamore. She has been backed off a bit so badly that just touching a rein leads to a dead stop. No bit because of her reactions.....but wait....

I decided to try a rubber mullen mouth. No metal, no moving parts...worth a try.
The only one I could find was a pelham, which turned out to be a good thing.
She is fine in the rubber bit, better than fine...trotting and stopping...both!

I decided to hang the second rein and a curb chain on it...just in case. She was doing some rooting in it and I realized that with the rubber bit, if she grabbed it and ran I couldn't do anything about it. So the second rein is an emergency brake.

I am riding on the snaffle rein, she is accepting some contact, going forward, somewhat giraffe-like but still an improvement. The second rein is very loose but it's there if I need it.

good stuff!

it really doesn't matter, part 2

I was getting frustrated with the latest brick wall that Nina threw at me. And there has been a lot of negative stuff going on in my life, mainly my mother being sick. So I have been whining about not being able to do what I want with the horse.

Last week I was not able to ride at all, too many obligations and responsibilities to take care of. By the end of the week I was exhausted. Sunday I went to the barn determined to find time to ride. I didn't care if all she wanted to do was walk, I just wanted to sit on a horse's back. I needed to. It's my therapy. So I let go of all my frustrations and just enjoyed having a horse to get on. And had a great ride. And had an even better one today.
I can't do what I want in my riding right now....so what. I can at least get on a horse and let my tension fade away. It's better than meditation.

it really doesn't matter

I just messed around with her for the last two days, not enough time to ride. And I realized that she has come a long long way and she is keeping me sane right now, so the rest doesn't really matter. We will get there, or not, who cares?

so discouraged....

Apparently every single new thing that Nina is introduced to is going to be the same battle.
She is walking around fairly cheerfully, totally unfazed by other horses, and stuff going on around the barn. She did spook at the mounting block the other day but it took a long time to decide to do that and she was telling me that she was bored.

But ask her to pick up a trot and the battle is on. The exact same stuck, sucked back, head slinging, threatening behavior that went on for a month over walking. *sigh*

I tried laying out poles to trot over, just to give her something to think about....it made no difference. She did trot a few steps following another horse so we may do that for a while.

With all the stuff going on at home, I just don't have the patience for this. I can see how people resorted to bashing her.....she makes it tempting. I need to be able to ride to relieve stress, not create it. I was so discouraged a few days ago I was ready to quit. Now I am willing to give it a little more time, keep working at it and see what happens.
Somebody taught her this behavior, I hope karma has caught up to them.

cross country!! not really...

I went out to Spring Gulch xc to teach a lesson today and hauled Nina along just to see how it would go. Also she hasn't been anywhere for over a year and I think that she may not have ever gotten on a trailer without going to a new home. Might as well get over that.

She was reluctant to load as the ramp was unstable, but she got over it and got on in a short time. Unloaded a little excited at the wide open spaces and horses visible in the distance. But Scotty unloaded like a fire breathing dragon his whole life, so I am used to that.

Lunged her a little, just trot around and then dragged her around with me like a big black dog while I taught the lesson. She got over being a little timid very quickly and started trying to drag me around. I was glad to see her more interested in a likely looking clump of grass and not the lions and tigers and bears in the shrubs, but I think she needs a ground manners tune up.

She hopped right on the trailer to go home. Rode well both ways. This was very nice. I am looking forward to actually riding her out there. She hopped over some logs and popped off a good size bank without any looks at all. She is going to be fun!

very layed back...

Spent a while this afternoon just walking in circles and loops around the arena. No one else was there. Stepped over some poles, got nice and straight before and after. She is turning off of my leg, walking out in a big relaxed stride. Every once in a while she has one ear forward and one back...I like that. Two ears back makes me a little nervous...Watch where you are going!

Early in the week I free jumped her a little in a big round pen. Started at 2 ft and just kept cranking it up. Her spot at the canter kept getting farther and farther away so she fixed it herself and trotted it a few times to a tight spot and then cantered again to a better spot. Cranked it up for one jump to 4ft, same as at 2ft except tighter knees, not excited at all. From one direction she clouted it at 4ft and scared herself, I lowered it to 3 ft and she popped over it.
Only jumped about 10 jumps. No chute, no big deal, never tried to run out. Stopped when she scared herself and then just trotted and popped over.
Either she has had some jump schooling with someone with great skills and soft hands or she is just very layed back about things until they are screwed up for her by some two legged twit.