Good/Bad/Interesting

Given the title of this entry you should have some idea that I have no idea what to think of last nights session with Mo. I really dont. A few things were off kilter - I forgot my ipod and I had a time limit - that I think affected me in some way.

When I got to the barn all of the horses were in the shed hiding from bugs. Those blasted little tiny blackflies that never went away all summer. Walking to the barn I called Mo's name and she looked over at me ears forward, good sign! I filled my pockets once more before going out. I forgot to grab a halter.

Indy was at the very edge of the shed so that when I went through the gate I could see her bum. I called her name and much to my surprise she turned around and came over to me! Hmm!! I gave her some treats and checked that her milk wasnt causing problems and was confronted with Tucker, who was watching the whole procedure with intense curiosity. Tucker is usually kind of a reculse to me, doesnt like to be scratched on his face at all. I offered him a chance to sniff me and gave him a crunch. He looked pleased at that so I went back to loving on Indy a bit more before going to find Mo. On the way I met Pride again, who looked thrilled that I had another treat for her.

Past Pride was Delilah, who actually half pinned her ears in my direction! When she did, I stopped and then she sort of did a double take and went "Wait.. what?" And looked at me ears up so I gave her a treat to. Interesting. Behind her was Trixie and Mo, with Tripp in between the two. As soon as I ducked under Delilah's neck, Tripp turned around and made to leave. Trixie and Mo on the other hand looked really happy!! I spent some time with those two while Tripp left - which made me sad but it really is not my business.

I got Trixie to move eventually, along with Delilah's bum so Mo and I could leave and off we went. We hit a minor hitch when Indy blocked our way at the end and Mo left when I went to move Indy - jealousy I think . The second time I brought Mo forwards we got to the gate no problem and I let her into the barn. She went down the aisle and into Prides stall.

When I got the gate latched Indy was there looking sad, wanting dinner so I got her some more crunches. When I fetched Mo out of the stall she was looking very pleased with herself. I brushed and saddled her in the aisle and then we were on our way with a 22' line. We played in the riding ring because the bugs are less vicious there.

I wanted to play with the figure 8 pattern, but needed to retrieve a barrel from the re-flooded portion of the ring. I backed Mo out of the way [so the rope wouldnt get wet, I admit] and proceded in my retrieval pattern.... until Mo went beserk and ran like an insane horse around me. Thankfully, my hand was phase 4 pattern interrupting before my mind conciously acknowledged what had happened. [Interesting to note that I think - one small bit of unconcious competence]

Mo looked very 'up' so I sent her around behind me and backed her a bunch until she remained reasonably attentive then went back to moving my barrel. She moved again, but not insanely, to over in front of my, so instead I just asked her to back away from the barrel as I rolled it. Strange pony.

We played with the figure eight pretty nicely at a trot, with even a few offers to fix her own mistakes when she was going to miss the barrel. That was cool.

When she was ready I mounted up with a 12' tied in one rein and a carrot stick. Riding around at a walk was fine, we chased Candy out of the ring, even getting some back and sideways nicely in our pseudo bridless fashion. At the trot things sort of fell apart. Im not really sure why. I think maybe her confidence just wasnt there so I decided to 'hold her hand'. That worked really well for Dakota last time I had him at Auntys and we got some really great stuff accomplished.

I tied my 12' into reins and ditched my carrot stick. Mo's head was up, so to get a soft feel my reins ended up quite short, which was a semi-novel experience. Off we went into trot/halt transitions and doing a figure eight exagerated and huge around one of the barrels we used earlier and the lonely barrel in the far end of the ring. Mo was really soft in the halter. I was actually surprised. 'Usually' she likes to push against me when I take up any kind of contact on the halter.

Our transitions were good, and she was blowing and calming down so I asked for a canter. Oh boy... scattered! It was rished, it was fast, it felt discombobulated. Oh my! Hmmm... why? I sitll dont know. So I tried to work on canter walk transitions with some full downward all the way to backing thrown in for good measure. Things got better with that. Our canter departs got fairly snappy. I think I wasnt helping to much because I was fighting to stay on my balance point in the Wintec Wide which seemed to be riding really low on her today.... I will have to experiment with more shims in different places or something.

So we went around, with a soft feel and short reins. Things werent great, but niether was I having to phase 4 disengage to stop her. It was all softly done. I remember thinking this is what it should be, and what Pat means when he says softer..softer.. go softly in all those colt starts. Just because Mo's freestyle is getting good, doesnt mean her baby finesse will be. Or does it?

I find I need to relax. Whether it was the saddle or not, I had a lot of tension in my body last night. I had a hard time following her body, a small ache in my back and I generally felt stiff. If I felt like that, how did Mo feel?? I am going to try some different shimming techniques and see if that helps...

When things were mostly ok in the ring I decided to practice my canter fluidity on the trails because of the long straight stretches. I also remember thinking that it *might* be a mistake. Hmm... I cant decide if it was or not. It certainly wasnt what I wanted to do. Mo was tight, concerned that every clump of grass was going to kill her, and only calmed down on the last bit of the ride back to the barn. Suffice to say, my fluidity didnt improve at all.

Even right when I dismounted I couldnt decide how to feel. I dont know how to feel about the session. I am proud that she was soft and responsive, but there was tension and unhappyness about it.... I just dont know.... so we will see where it goes from here.

I am thinking more and more about a Fluidity Saddle for Mo and me - and Indy and Kota to. I am just tired of struggling to find balance in the Wide, and I am not sure the other saddle fits Mo right... let the saving begin I suppose.

:-)
S