Thursday, September 30, 2010

Strange Rain

My mom and I went down to the farm for our morning horse time. She was riding Connor and I was going to play with Misty on the ground. As I was playing with Misty, my mom opened up the center gate and let the other three horses in with us. I do not know what drove her to do so, but she did . . . and shortly thereafter all kinds of strange things ensued. First, it began to rain. It did not look like it should be raining, and it was very light and more of a general atmosphere, not a condition thereof. Next, Blu began to run after Connor and mount him, bite him, and generally pursue with haste. Several times, he ran in front of Connor and stopped in his tracks, causing a trainwreck. My mom and I were laughing so hard. Connor was so well-behaved throughout Blu's antics: he did not pin his ears severely, kick, or bite. He just looked extremely annoyed. My mom and I can only make the conjecture that Blu is taking advantage of Connor's position as a ridden horse to do whatever he wants to him. It was very, VERY strange.

My mom was flailing her hand at Blu to shoo him, but it was only effective until Blu came back again. So I chased him with Misty. We were on the chase when all of the sudden the line came tight. I looked back and Misty was planted on the tire pedestal. I said "Okay, that's fine," and played with Blu for a moment. Misty stayed the watching me for a long time. I would check back in with her every now and then. Blu calmed down after he came to me and got some attention from me. That is when I planned to have a very vigorous session with him in the evening. I was only away for about 4 minutes (probably less) when she left the pedestal. Now, some might think this was a bad thing, but it all a part of her breakthrough with obstacles. It took several minutes for her to disengage from that obstacle. I never told her to get on it. The proper response when it came into her path (which it didn't, she actually went out of her way to go to it) would have been to focus on me and go right over it. So, it took that long for her to realize that she did not need to be on it.

I retrieved her from the stall she went to and continued playing with her. At the time, I internally wondered if it was ok for me to disengage with her while I played with Blu, but in retrospect, I think it was important for her to be left alone with her obstacle to think about it.

I had a great session with Misty.

So strange, huh?

Natural Horsewoman Out

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About Me

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I am a young horsewoman with a million things on my mind. I have been a student of the horse all my life. As a little girl, I had a desire to understand horses on deeper levels. I believed that there was no such thing as a bad horse, and I believed that all horses were beautiful. One might say that I was a naive child, but I guess I don't have an excuse anymore, because I still believe all of that, and Parelli Natural Horsemanship is helping expand on this perspective.

What We Are Currently Playing With

  • Moving Close Circles at Liberty
  • Soft, Balanced Canter on 45' Line
  • Zone 5 Driving