I had another lesson today on Finn.

In case you missed the other posts about my lessons, I’m driving up the street about 20 minutes to a ranch that has about 12,000 acres.  They also have a ginormous arena where they could land planes or maybe run barrels or work cattle.

You get my drift.

Anyway, completely different than any way I have ever trained my horses… so a completely different style of learning.

Being in that environment makes me think a lot.

Am I standing up for my horse or making excuses?  (A whole other blogpost…)

But all in all, these days are amazing!  Just to be able to work out in these beautiful hills with people that know everything about ranching and doctoring people who might get hurt… and to be able to walk through their private, pristine grasslands…

Well, I feel blessed… even if, right now, I am 1/16th the rider I was!!

YARD SALE!

So Finn hasn’t been ridden in 2 years.  There was a time that I took him riding 3-4 times a week and we had really become a team.  Finn has always been a bit insecure when riding alone, so it took a while.  He likes familiar places.  (Not like Aladdin who got bored if he recognized a trail…).  Finn is the kind of horse who works great on a drill team, with another rider or on a trail he knows.

Well, add to all of that, his owner hasn’t been riding much and is only recently over the uncoordination and muscle weirdness of Lyme (actually, I may not be totally over that but I think I am…).

So we are a PAIR!  Him all bunched up and fretful of what he is supposed to do.  Me all bunched up and fretful of what I am supposed to do… We are like a comedy team.

LOUNGE.  LUNGE.  LONGE.  however you spell it…

Today, Finn was like a tight spring.  So, I was told to lounge him.

To be honest, I never, ever lunged him when we rode together all the time.  Never.  Sure, he learned how to do it eons ago, but we haven’t done that in years.  YEARS.

Well, there I was today, trying to remember how to do it and not get twisted up.   I remembered to look at his hip, not his face… But, I still got myself twisted in the longe line more than I didn’t.

He kept thinking I wanted him to go the other way.  He was all discombobulated, too.

We were a mess.

But, finally, after working it out, we did it!  I didn’t trip over the rope and he didn’t make any anticipation errors!  Yay!

Note to self: get my other lunge line that I like better and put it in the trailer.

LEG vs REIN

We did some work in the ginormarena, too.  Finn works better off of rein and I tend to use my legs more.  So, we worked on that.  I think we both reverted to what we were most comfortable with… he was trained by a TWH show trainer.  I was trained by a very strict English riding dominatrix.

Anyway, we went around some of the poles and barrels they had in the arena – which made everyone there laugh.  They have never seen a ‘gaited’ horse and didn’t know what to make of  him.  They kept asking me to trot.   I kept saying that he doesn’t trot.  They shook their heads.  I could just hear it, “City Folk and their newfangled horses…”.

OUT IN THE GORGEOUS!

After a half hour of comical but useful interaction, we went for a quick trail ride.

Gorgeous.  This is what it is all about.

Me and my horse that doesn’t trot.

THESE DIDN’T SELL YESTERDAY!, I STILL HAVE 1 – LG Bitless BRIDLE available, which is very unusual!!   You can read about them here. 

–Brand new Brown/chain chinstrap for $125, click here for the brown chain.

GUINNESS, OUR BUCKET FUND HORSE, NEEDS HIS DEPOSIT FOR SURGERY – JUST $545 MORE!

FEBRUARY DROP IN THE BUCKET FUND!  Guinness is a 17 year-old Irish Draught lifelong Schooling horse – His severe tumors were left to grow to over 2lbs!! Vet surgeon says he can fix it,  LET’S PLEASE HELP HIM! Click here to read his story.   Click here to donate!  THANK YOU!