We went out Monday evening on an "on lead" walk. Our plans were to walk down the canal bank and work on some obstacles and gw exercises away from our usual training area. I didn't know that the neighbors down the street were keeping a new stallion.
As we headed in that direction Ranae was in front of us leading Dusty. Jessie, though not show any outwards signs of being in season, was very interested in the stallion. As we walked past their pasture the stallion started running all over the place and blowing and snorting. Jessie's tail was up and swishing and she was snorting too. I tried yielding her hindquarters and some c-pattern exercises, She wasn't paying attention at all and got whacked pretty good a couple of times, but still showed little interest in my "leadership". It didn't seem like a good idea to keep working her right there with the stallion running about like a banshee. We were still on the asphalt.
I kept her moving and once we were about 50 yards down the canal bank she started calm down. We then did some leading beside and side-passing along the fence. We also did a little jogging. We got to our obstacles and did some sending around them which necessitated her going down the canal bank almost to the water. She did all of these exercises very well.
On the way back I chose to take a different route that avoided the stallion. Guess I lost confidence in my leadership skills too.
3 comments:
Well now John you need to cut her som slack. She is a girl after all. Even if she isn't "ready" that doesn't mean she doesn't want to get stud muffin all riled up. :)
When I bought her the sales flyer never mentioned "party girl".
Riled up - mission accomplished!
I know EXACTLY how you feel! Nothing like a horse with a mind of their own to knock you back down to ground zero! I'll bet if you went back down there a few more times, though, her attention would be back on you. That's good what you are doing. I do hope you get to ride again soon!! diane
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