Thursday, December 2, 2010
Game Playing
I'm still working on mounting the horse unaided. The mare allows me to lead her to the mounting block with minimal resistance. Once I climb up to the third step she swings her butt away from the block making the stirrup unreachable. I climb back down and move her back. Rinse and repeat. My instructor maintains that once the mare understands that I am serious and not about to let her get away with this nonsense that (hopefully) she will stop testing me. Do not get mad. Do not get frustrated. Just keep correcting her until she stands still. Once mounted give her a lot of praise. (Honestly, I don't think she cares about praise; she only tolerates me because I give her carrots after class) Oh, and dumb me managed to not get the girth tight enough again yesterday and the saddle slipped. No wonder the horse "dislikes" me. Plus the instructor had me trotting without stirrups. I'd hate to have me jarring around on my back. Who invented the sitting trot and why?
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The moment of climbing up on my horse is the biggest test of my confidence. The commitment of swinging your leg over the saddle is when I feel most vulnerable.
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to prepare to mount, my horse would swing himself over so close to me that I didn't have the leverage to get my foot in the sirrup and get on.
Getting down off the mounting block to correct your horse is a pain but not addressing it is worse of a pain.
I found getting off and aggressively backing him up (wayyyy back and quickly; i.e., making him work) and then resetting him at the block resolved the issue.
He soon got the point that I wasn't going to stand for his tricks and if he didn't stand still, there was a consequence which included moving his feet and having to work.