A new horse! Or should I say a new elephant?

Well Diamond and I have been slow in our progress mostly due to me not knowing what new things to teach him. I have been doing more at liberty so we ARE progressing in that although he still will get the "Nah, not even treats are gonna make me play with you when I can go over here and graze." attitude. Still, better than it used to be so I am pleased that we are in a complete rut-I'm having trouble with the figure 8 of all things, something he used to do perfectly well! Suddenly he stops, knocks over barrels, gets frustrated...so while we are trying to overcome this mysterious relapse that also gives me something to focus on. I am also incorporating larger jumps into our play routien. Conditioning him for competition without him even realizing it :) Not that we are competing any time soon, but I can have "home shows" in our yard and time myself. Besides, its always good for a horse to be in excellent shape.

In the midst of all this, I found someone who is willing to let me work with her horses! The one I will be working on the most is a six year old percheron gelding named Indy. I. Love. Him. I have only worked with him for one two hour session so far but I am still so completely, utterly in love with him. Percherons have always been one of my favorite breeds-definitely my favorite heavy breed, and probably vying for first place on my overall favorite breed list. Today I mostly did the seven games with him. He is mostly LBI with a few E tendencies and maybe some slight RB but at the moment I cannot tell if the Extrovertedness is purely LB or with some RB mixed in. He did great in the games although he had the typical LB dislike of moving his forequarters. After that I played at liberty some with a LBE Shire cross named Kavi. I'm not really supposed to do much work with her though so it really was just playing and not training. We ran around and had fun, and then the third horse in the pasture-an elderly but startlingly beautiful mare named Ruby-saw that I had treats and decided her initial waryness of me did not matter so she carefully came over and I gave her a treat. There was something gentle about her eyes that really caught me-Okay, I admit to a terrible case of love at first sight with ALL of them. Then again I am afflicted with that for almost every horse I get the chance to work with, so what can I say? Horses do not help me see things rationally. Tomorrowwwwwws only a dayyy aaawayyyyyyy! And then I get to return to my newfound friends!
As a note: Susan, the horses owner, is extremely nice, I like her a lot. I was worried that whoever answered my add for horse training would watch me like a hawk and be kind of "back seat driver-ish" but she isn't at all. That is to say she watches me, but its more of an interested/making sure nobody is being murdured type of watching. I also feel like she really listens to my opinions on horses-something most equestrian adults don't do. I understand I am young, etc. but it does feel nice when your opinion is valued. I kind of think this caused me to talk to much however. I do tend to blab about horses when I am around any poor person who will listen. Goodness knows my family has to tune me out sometimes or else in the middle of watching a movie I will suddenly blurt out everything I did with Diamond that day, speaking so enthusiastically I drown out the TV.

Not gonna let it turn out like my diaries...

It has been too long since my last post. I am not going to let this blog turn out like my diary/journals always turn out...three months into it if I'm really trying, if not...three pages, then it gets lost under my bed :P To update on Diamond and I and our progress...I always forget to do the figure eight and weaves patterns with him. I don't know why but I do. So lately I have been really trying to work on that and he is getting so much better! He'll even trot through them now, and occasionally canter, although he gets stuck on the turns and slows to a walk. Its just sooooo much EFFORT to turn AND keep trotting. I might as well ask him to jump over the moon! On the other hand, I've been working on the traveling circle and he is doing WONDERFUL. It always used to be he would stop when he got behind me and I was always to slow with my body and the carrot stick to get him moving again before he had the little "Nah nah, look what I did!" look on his face. I became just a little more assertive, added apple treats and it made all the difference. Now I can walk for an entire minute with him circling around me! I usually keep it at one to four circles though, other wise he starts getting negative feelings about it. I've been playing circing with obstacles by jumping him over barrels standing up. I was really surprised when I put just two barrels standing upright and he headed right towards them when I asked, and popped over them like it was nothing! Treat treat treat! For Liberty, I have been doing a LOT of friendly game, a little sideways, some porcupine, some Stick To Me (using the fence to keep him from wandering far enough away that he can stop and graze) and lead by the mane at a trot. Riding has just been bareback w/halter lately(not that I ever use anything but a halter) Although I did saddle up and go on a twenty mile trail ride with one of my friends. Diamond was wonderful except for one part during the ride home where he decided Providence(friends horse) was getting to close and bit at him. We had a little calm-down session then went off again. This time he tried a kick. So, everytime he acted aggressively towards Provy I just told him to trot IN FRONT of Providence so he wouldn't need to tolerate him. Pretty soon he decided walking beside Provy was fine :P To reward him I let him eat a little grass before we headed home. During the ride while we were on a dirt road these three HUGE construction trucks carrying really freaky objects that even I couldn't identify passed us. My friend and I pulled off on the side of the road. Diamond took one look at the trucks, dismissed them as insignificant, and took advantage of our pause to eat some leaves. Back on home(on another day) we jumped the upright barrels bareback(yay me for not losing my balance!) and did lots and lots of transitions.

Well that updates pretty much everything. I will certainly post RIGHT AFTER our next play session so I don't have to write so much!

And...bravo!

When I went trail riding Diamond was angelic in regards to stallion behaviour....demonic in regards surround left brained introvert behaviour. He obsessed about wanting to plod verrrrrrrrrry verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slowly to my friends and I's meetup place. Then when the other horses came into competition he perked up and lifted his feet a little-he does like to be in front, especially when we canter. On the way home it was back to plod...plod...plod. Still I was so happy that he had kept his studdy urges under his fur that I didn't mind. I saw another rider I've never met on my way home, but they were on another trail so I didn't get the chance to say hi-maybe I'll run across them another time. Its so hard to find riding buddies-no one wants the risk of a stallion tagging along. But, I have two friends that are willing to ride with me, and I'm fairly happy with that.

On to a completely wonderful note! This weekend I am going to the Women Luv Horses event in ocala. I can't make it friday but I'm going saturday and sunday with my mom. Linda is going to be there, ohhhh I can't wait!! I love the inspiration that fills you after a horse event-I fortell teaching Diamond a couple new things, and learning a TON myself this coming week!