Vegashorselady
12-29-2010, 11:38 AM
Last night my friend and I hauled to the public horse park to ride and get our horses a little exposure. I took Remington, who is usually pretty good about being in new places, but things changed a little in the dark. The shadows lurking just out of reach of the lights held all kinds of horse eating monsters and turned Rem into a big ball of nerves.
I started out with him lunging in the round pen because, well, I don't have a death wish, lol! He had begun to calm down when he spotted a kid on a skateboard approaching the park, it was dark out so at first I had no idea what spooked him but he did an impressive sideways leap and took off running around and around. It took a little bit but I finally convinced him that I was the one he needed to worry about, not the skateboarding kid, so, it was time to head to the arena to ride.
We were sharing the arena with a trailer load full of gymkhanna kids weaving around poles in the middle of the arena and their "trainer" yelling nutty instructions like, "get in the well," whatever that means, and "turn them with your whole body" lol! Remington took all that commotion in stride and we were making our way around the arena at an easy trot until we came to one corner with a big mud puddle, we got two feet fromt the puddle and Rem hit the brakes. Ok, fine, we went around the puddle and then came back to it again. There was plenty of room to walk around the puddle on the rail and so we started around it, halfway past it Remington freaks out and trys to take off.:rolleyes: We rode around a little longer and then I spotted a huge water puddle in one of the other pens, this puddle was a few inches deep and 4 feet at the narrowest spot. Of course, I had to take my water phobic three year old in there!
After untacking Remington, I lead him over to the water, he started snorting as soon as he spotted it, but he did willingly put his feet in the mud on the edges and sniff at it. I turned him loose and tried to free lunge him through the puddle, he tip toed around it but couldn't avoid it completely so his feet splashed in the very edge of it. We continued this and he was finally calm about splashing through the edges so I put his halter and lead back on and walked him up to the middle of the puddle, he stopped at the edge of it and I gave him a minute and then gave him my cue to walk forward. To my surprise, Remington walked right into the middle of the water and stood there! Yay! That was definitely a succesful session and time to quit and go home. :)
Then, on the way to the trailer, Remington reared up and did a 180 because some lady was walking 20 feet behind us with a chihuahua. Sigh, that's the fun of training your horse, there's always something new to work on. :p
I started out with him lunging in the round pen because, well, I don't have a death wish, lol! He had begun to calm down when he spotted a kid on a skateboard approaching the park, it was dark out so at first I had no idea what spooked him but he did an impressive sideways leap and took off running around and around. It took a little bit but I finally convinced him that I was the one he needed to worry about, not the skateboarding kid, so, it was time to head to the arena to ride.
We were sharing the arena with a trailer load full of gymkhanna kids weaving around poles in the middle of the arena and their "trainer" yelling nutty instructions like, "get in the well," whatever that means, and "turn them with your whole body" lol! Remington took all that commotion in stride and we were making our way around the arena at an easy trot until we came to one corner with a big mud puddle, we got two feet fromt the puddle and Rem hit the brakes. Ok, fine, we went around the puddle and then came back to it again. There was plenty of room to walk around the puddle on the rail and so we started around it, halfway past it Remington freaks out and trys to take off.:rolleyes: We rode around a little longer and then I spotted a huge water puddle in one of the other pens, this puddle was a few inches deep and 4 feet at the narrowest spot. Of course, I had to take my water phobic three year old in there!
After untacking Remington, I lead him over to the water, he started snorting as soon as he spotted it, but he did willingly put his feet in the mud on the edges and sniff at it. I turned him loose and tried to free lunge him through the puddle, he tip toed around it but couldn't avoid it completely so his feet splashed in the very edge of it. We continued this and he was finally calm about splashing through the edges so I put his halter and lead back on and walked him up to the middle of the puddle, he stopped at the edge of it and I gave him a minute and then gave him my cue to walk forward. To my surprise, Remington walked right into the middle of the water and stood there! Yay! That was definitely a succesful session and time to quit and go home. :)
Then, on the way to the trailer, Remington reared up and did a 180 because some lady was walking 20 feet behind us with a chihuahua. Sigh, that's the fun of training your horse, there's always something new to work on. :p