A lesson learned

It was an interesting session with Josie yesterday.
We worked her here at home, no getting on her this time but worked more on sacking out. This little red head has a lot to tell us.
She takes about a half hour every session to go from reactive to soft, and I think it's just her immature mind, and possibly her defensiveness in the herd- after all she was raised with bossy big brothers which strengthened her flight instinct. Clancy too is boss over her.

Tight mouth and worried look- but at least her feet are stopped.

Where we really found the issue- and made the breakthrough- was when one of us would circle her with a "scary" object while the other one held her with the desired result of having her stand still. For the story, visit this page for Shayla's blog post on this.

When you think about it, as riders we always give our horses a chance to see any potential scary objects, for example a vehicle or dog coming up behind them, by either tipping their head or turning them, and this sacking out work is no different. Once she figured out it was ok to just turn her head, and once we figured out that changing eyes was the issue, we made much better progress!

Next up was putting my saddle on her instead of the little training saddle. It is a bit heavier, and has lower stirrups and straps to flap around. She did get a bit worried the first time she felt the stirrups bump her sides, but came back nicely. 

This next video is of her getting used to the feel of weighting the saddle- much different than sliding on her from a mounting block, bareback. 

 She had such an intense session with the groundwork, and made such good progress that Shayla decided not to get on, but we did do the training for getting on from the fence which I had learned in the Buck Brannaman clinic. She learned to parallel the fence, and Shayla could safely put her weight in a stirrup without actually getting on. All in all it was a really good day!

Finally- that soft look!

Ideally you are supposed to keep one foot on the fence, but with three rails this fence is not quite suitable- I can do it but my legs are much longer. 4 rails would work better.
Really looking forward to the next session- I bet all this will have sunk in and it will be a really good day.

Some links.

For those of you who missed the post on Rio getting injured, here is the link. I find that lower leg injuries take a while to heal. Also, here is a link to Young Living's main website.
While we are on to links, if you haven't been following the story of Janice's 34 year old horse, Tex, here is a link to the whole story; start at the bottom post to read it chronologically. Yesterday's post was quite moving.

A couple of new blogs

There are a couple of new blogs I'd like to mention. There is Cheeky Mare at Jump on and Ride, who lives in Belize, and Crystal at Ranch Riding who lives in Alberta and probably wishes she lived in Belize right now with all the super cold weather they are getting. Stop by and say howdy!

Wholesome kid stuff

Looking for some good Christian fiction that includes horses? Check out this website- Sonrise Stables. They are also known as Christian Cowgirl. Check it out for all the little cowkids in your life!

...And Andee's new home

Well it has been quite a weekend! As I was sitting on Gussie, waiting to go into the sale ring, I got a call on Andee, (love those cell phones!) and ended up selling her to a fellow blogger; Sherry at Fern Valley Appaloosas! So I hauled Andee to Sherry's place today, where she will be living with her new buddy, a beautiful little Appaloosa filly called Catch a Dream. I asked if Andee fans could see her progress on Sherry's blog, and she said she'd try to post as much as she has time for. So I am putting a link to her blog in my Horse Blogs! Thanks, Sherry, and I hope you enjoy this beautiful filly.

New Link as Promised

Here is the link to Prairie Ridge Performance Horses as I promised. Be sure to cruise the site and sign the guest book! There are some colourful youngsters for sale, as well as some that are ready to start training . I've got my eye on a couple of them!