HEY EVERYBODY!!!!!!
SORRY I HAVEN'T WRITTEN ABOUT THE HORSES IN A WHILE. I HAVEN'T BEEN DOWN ALL WEEK! AS YOU HAVE PROBABLY NOTICED BY NOW, I AM SHOUTING (OR WRITING IN CAPS) BECAUSE I AM SO FRICKING EXCITED AND HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT JUST FOR YOU GUYS, I WILL GO BACK TO REGULAR TYPING!
So...today was AH-MAZING!!!!! I will do Casper first because even though I played with him second, his progress wasn't as awsome as Sharlie. He still was great...but in comparison...
Casper:
I haltered Casper with savvy. He was slightly reserved at first, which I suppose was to be expected because last time I played with him, we trotted for the first time. So I decided to do something totally different!! We didn't go out the gate, we started walking down toward the back of the field where the new bridge is. We played with that a bit, and within a space of a few minutes the bridge went from being the evil horse-eating monster to "ok ill follow julia across it..." Then we were out in the fields with just the lead rope over his back and him following me around as if there was an invisible thread bonding us.
When we got back to the barn he was LBE!!! :D
Sharlie:
Sharlie was...well.. amazing! On the ground we did some liberty prep work with trotting, stopping and backing up with me in zone 3 and it was great! She trotted slowly when I did, extended when I did, stopped when I did, and backed up when i did! We were in sync!!
Then I saddled Sharlie up (w/ the bareback pad) and we were off! Once hitting the trail again, I asked Sharlie to pick up a trot by urging her with my seat and squeezing slightly. No clicking, nothing. We trotted around the tree, then up onto the hill. THen we walked. But as we were trotting up toward the hill, I thought to myself "Look I am trotting (almost) bareback in a wide open space with a loose(r) rein!! Amazing!"
Then Sharlie and I did a lot of trotting. We also started working on the spinning thing....i dont know what its called
THen to finish our wonderful ride I decided to do the unthinkable...cantering bareback. So here I am about to ask Sharlie to go up the hill where I know I can easily get her to canter...Thing is, can I get her to stop? Will I fall off? I decided not to overthink and just do it. And what ended up happening is that Sharlie cantered a few steps before I asked her to stop.
It was a huge success. This bareback pad Im borrowing has a big part in it too. I am going to have to ask Kara if I can borrow it for a few months...
I am going to be writing an email to Parelli asking if there is some sort of volenteer work I can do, such as writing about something or another....yea...we will see where THAT goes!! :P
Stay Natural
Julia
Yay!!
ReplyDeleteGreat job girl! Cantering bareback is awesome. My favorite is cantering bareback with barrels as jumps. That is awesome. Sharlie is going to be really good at jumping, especially bareback. She's an Arab, right?
ReplyDeleteLeah, my sister's horse that I ride while she's at college, is amazing with jumps. 2 years ago, she wouldn't even canter without throwing a hissy fit. Now we can canter beautifully and jump- Bareback! :)
So what I'm saying is, if you have trouble with something now, it will blow your mind with how much you can learn, how your savvy will grow, and what you can accomplish in a year or two.
Yes, Sharlie is indeed an Arab but she is HORRIBLE at jumping. :) It could be partly because of her blind eye, but she has extreme trouble with jumps, big and small. She likes to think she can jump, but usually ends up falling down. :\
ReplyDeleteWe did some more cantering yesturday and there was one point where it was so smooth and beautiful. THen Sharlie got fiesty and started bucking :P
Haha. The same horse I mentioned above is blind in one eye as well. That's why I think we can relate. You're going to have wild success with jumps some day, just start small and stay friendly.
ReplyDelete