In like a Lion, out like a Lamb

I can't believe it's March already. Is it possible this year will go by even faster than last year? Or the year before? Wow. I hope not.

Saturday was a perfect day. The sun rose into a slightly chilly morning, but didn't take long to warm it up to the lower 80s. A soft breeze blew all day long, and kept the temperature feeling more like 75 in the sun. Beautiful. 

I woke up at 6 a.m. - on a Saturday - to drive an hour, to see my horse. If that's not dedicated, I don't know what is. I mentioned a few posts ago that I can feel that bug to ride coming back to me. I got to the barn around 8. She was still eating morning hay but left it to come say hi. I touched her nose on my way into the tack room, but she seemed to know what was coming, so very promptly left the gate and went back to the hay. I moved all of my things out to her stall, and began rustling in my brush box for a pocketful of mints as I grabbed her halter and lead rope off the hook. 

She looked over. I rustled the wrapper again. She turned around and walked toward me, stuffing her face in my arms. She must really want the mint to be cuddly at this hour, and leave real food. I pulled her purple halter over her ears, and brought her to the tie. I tied it short, hoping it would prevent her from dancing around. 

If only I was that lucky.

She danced. I said "Stand up." She pawed. I said "Quit." She danced some more. She tried to kick me in the head. I slapped her butt for her efforts and yelled at her, "Mare, QUIT.". She looked sheepish and then continued to dance. If I'm on one side, she dances away from me. If I switch sides, she dances the other way. I don't like this. "Stand up!" I tell her, one hand on the rope, as I glare into her eyes. "This is ridiculous, Promise. Stand up." She obliged for about 30 seconds. 

She actually didn't stop until she tried to move away from me while I had her left front foot in my hand, picking it out, and nearly lost her balance. Real smart. She learned long ago, I won't let go unless I am in danger. I wasn't, so I held on, and told her to stand up...again. Then she thought she'd be cute and try to pull the left hind away from me. (Did I mention she wasn't particularly smart on Saturday?) I didn't let go, in fact, I held on tight, smacked her butt with my elbow, told her to quit and continued what I was doing. 

I was beginning to wonder what I was going to have to deal with under saddle if she was being this much of a terror on the ground. I went to wrap her left front leg with a teal polo and she pranced herself off to the right. I sighed. I thought we'd gotten past this today. The good news is, she went so far she couldn't move to the right anymore, and proceeded to stand still while I wrapped it. Then I went to the right side, and asked her to move over so she was standing in the center of her space again. I tugged on the lead to remind her before I crouched down to wrap the right front. She stood still so I gave her a mint and shook my head, wondering where the 4 year old immature "I don't have any idea how to stand still" mentality had managed to find a way to sneak back into her brain.

I put the saddle on, preparing for a bronc when I did up the girth. She didn't move a muscle. Ok...now I'm confused. "Are you going to behave today? Or be an idiot?" I asked her as put my helmet on, tucked my gloves into my pockets and untangled her bridle. She simply looked back at me innocently enough but I could see a gleam in her eyes, and it was what I was bracing myself for. I tossed the reins over her head, removed her halter, and tucked the bridle over her ears, doing the noseband up and leaving the throat latch hanging. After attaching my lunge line to her, I wrapped the reins and looped them into the throat latch before buckling it. Then I did the girth up tight enough so it wouldn't slide back any more than necessary when she walked off, but it wasn't so tight that she'd decide to illustrate that demonic gleam before we got to the arena.

Going through my mental checklist. Gloves. Helmet. Half-chaps. Polos. Saddle. Bridle. Lunge Line. Oh, right. Horse. Got it. 

"Let's go." I said, turning her toward the gate and opening it. She walked off like she had no idea that I was expecting her to misbehave. In fact, she sort of looked back at me with the same kind of surprise I was wearing when glanced over my shoulder. Mine said, "What? No bucking? No funny business at all?" And she said, "Me? Buck? Pfffft. I would never." 

We walked together toward the arena, with her spooking at a leaf here, looking at the dogs on the right, pretending to be scared of them, even though she's really not. Through the gate. Turn, latch it. Turn, walk toward the round pen to check on those sillies.

There weren't any. Not one. She sighed when I tightened the girth. She sighed again when I had to loosen it, to raise it up on the right side because it wasn't tight enough the first time. I asked her to walk off and she leveled her head and walked off without a single ounce of tension in her body. Who is this horse?

Walk-trot-canter in both directions. Check the girth. She's barely breathing hard. I lead her out of the round pen, wait for the walk-trot lesson to kick her stubborn lesson horse who is bonded to Promise on by and continue on their circle, then I walk in and grab the plastic mounting block so I can mount outside the arena. She has this horrible habit of swinging away from the block when I get on it, so arenas that have corners set for mounting blocks work perfectly. Those that are set in the middle are no so perfect. And this one, has no fence line (well, not a normal one. I guess I need to take a picture.) So, I walked the block and the horse back to the round pen, set her up beside the fence, and plopped the block down at her side. I unwrapped two mints, stuffed them in her mouth and then climbed on before she could forget the taste of them. She politely waited for me to grab my right stirrup and then walked off. I gave her a squeeze so it was more like it had been my idea. Normally I stop her. But normally...her back is tense, and I want her to stand for a moment with me on her, and relax. This time...still no tension. She walked right off like a (dare I say it?) normal saddle horse. 

We stayed on the perimeter of the arena, while the lesson worked on a circle in the middle. I was so proud of this little girl. I remember riding horses that gave me this kind of trouble. Always stopping at one area of the arena, and struggling to get them past it. 

The instructor seemed a little surprised that I was so efficient at staying out of her way. When she had trouble, I circled until she got out of it. When she switched direction, I switched at the other end of the arena, circling first if I needed to. We never crossed paths, and got a decent warm-up out of all the direction changing and 10-15 meter circles.

When they were settling down in the middle to talk and dismount, I did some canter work. She felt very up and nice in my hands. I know she wasn't fully using her hind end, but she really felt great, so I tried to focus on myself, and kept reminding myself to keep my thumbs up and sit back more. Our transitions were pretty terrible all around, so we worked on that a bit, and will need to keep it up.