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which_chickIt's deer season. There are deer hunters. So, I've been doing work in the yard (close to the house and barn) in order to avoid deer hunters. Bird and Genie need outings that are bigger than the yard, so Snap is up for work. She doesn't need big outings just yet. We're still at "meet the bridle" and "intro to ground driving" and stuff. I can do all of that shit in the driveway while remaining safe from random gunfire.
And I mentioned that without discussing why Bubba wasn't fixing up the pony for her own daughter. Bubba rides fairly effectively... but she doesn't make horses or start horses or fix skills on horses. Like, she is not a problem solver. I think she could be, if she wanted, but she's busy with a boyfriend and his daughter and her daughter and so forth. It's not going to happen from that quarter.
We don't have very many people who are willing to do "Horse Kindergarten" on horses to get them from do-not-ride to do-ride. Laur can do it but she hasn't in a couple of years. She used to do all the horses but of late she hasn't done very many. I think Cuervo was the last one she put any serious number of rides on, and that was like 2010 or something. Partly she's busy with her job and 4-H and partly she has a back that ain't what it could be. Trys will ride green things that have been through Horse Kindergarten and she does all right with that, mostly by way of not getting tight in her body and having a decent seat for mild greenbean shenanigans. She's never ridden anything that is actually out to get her and I am not confident that things would go well in that scenario, but for greenies that have been through effective Horse Kindergarten and are not terribly sharp-edged, she does well enough. Trys sucks at doing the ground work. She just isn't good at it, doesn't correct, doesn't make it sharp.
Liss (Laur's mom) used to send some out, but she hasn't done that in ages, either.
The Horse Kindergarten person we have at the moment is me. I've done Horse Kindergarten for... about sixteen horses now. Not a pro, but approaching skilled-ammie status. I don't love doing it, but once the horses have some utility, people will ride them and then they have value and can have careers.
What happens in Horse Kindergarten?
Learning, primarily learning that makes the horse nicer to be around. It sounds a lot like all I do is beat the pony, but that is NOT true and it is NOT the goal and honestly there is never a mark on the pony. Also, I do not "trick" or "sucker" the pony with grain to catch it nor is it living in a stall where "catching" it is trivial. Pony is loose and naked in a large (over ten acres) field with other ponies and if pony TRULY did not wish to engage with me, she could run my ass around the field for hours and hours before letting me put a hand on her. That does not happen. The ponies stand to be caught.
Yes, yes, fine. But what are the SKILLS? What SKILLS do you teach?
1. Stand to be caught and haltered. Do not try to rip out of my hands, do not turn your head away from the halter, do not bull past me by shoving me with your shoulder. Do not trot away shaking your head defiantly. STAND. Stand still while I halter you, politely. Stand AFTER I halter you until I decide to walk back to the gate.
2. Work gates POLITELY like a broke horse. When leaving the field, go through the gate as I stand and direct you through from the inside. Then, turn and face the gate and wait for me to come through, close and latch gate, and proceed. Stay out of my way, but unhurried and patient. When entering the field, wait for me to go through with the gate (our gate opens INTO the field) and hold the non-hinge end. Come through when I allow. Turn and face me, with slack in the rope, while I close and latch the gate. Stand politely to be unhaltered. WAIT until the halter is removed, then turn and politely walk off. At a walk. (I will never, ever slap my horse on the butt to "make it run" upon turning it loose. When horse is loose, that is HER TIME and she can do what she wants. When horse is caught, that is MY TIME and she goes the speed I say. Every one of my horses walks off politely when turned loose. Every time.) It only takes about three get-out-and-put-away efforts to improve gate skills on a horse. It makes them SO MUCH nicer to be around. It makes them SAFER to be around. It makes things better for everyone. Just fucking teach the gate skills.
3. Have patience while standing tied for more than half an hour. There are a lot of times in a grown horse's life where he will have to stand tied for more than half an hour. Maybe at a show, waiting for the hunter classes. Maybe on a trail ride, for the lunch break. Maybe for the farrier. Maybe on a high line picket overnight at a multiday trail ride. You do not know the job that the horse will be asked to do, but you DO have the ability to teach patience while standing tied. (By practicing, with a stout halter and a solid hitching post and repeated exposure to the concept.)
4. Be touched all over your body. Your body, as a pony, belongs to me when I have you caught. Your feet are my feet, your ears are my ears, your udder is my udder, your sheath is my sheath, all of you belongs to me and I can touch you anywhere I want. I will work on this with you and the intent is NOT to cause you pain or unhappiness but to make sure that you don't hurt the toddler who hugs your leg without warning or pulls your ear while you're trying to eat grass. I cannot prevent people from being stupid around you but I can teach you to be OK with stupid people. So... yeah. Get used to it.
5. Pick up your feet on demand and stand politely for simulated farrier work. Move and hold feet in all farrier-appropriate directions. Understand that there may at some point be metallic hammering on your feet and stand for that, too.
6. Move away from light hand pressure, particularly when directed at your shoulder, barrel, and hip. This is because you may be the "last horse" on the stock trailer who needs to shove the other ones back perpendicular instead of diagonal so that you have somewhere to stand. This is because maybe we need you to move over for reasons. It's also going to help you be a riding horse later on. Just learn to do it.
7. Learn rope skills (back up, circle, change-direction, head to ground, ground tie, turn out of rope, hide-your-butt). (I am not a Parelli devotee, please don't start with me over that.) I find these rope skills useful to develop a language with the horse for successful groundwork en route to riding readiness. I want the horse to LOOK to me to find out what to do. I want the horse to LEARN that (A) there is a 'correct' answer to any question I ask (B) the horse should search for the answer and (C) I will be clear and fast with my release of pressure when the horse finds the answer. Rope skills also help cement the idea that I am the person in charge and the horse is not the person in charge and also that it's a lot nicer when things go the way I want.
8. LEAD WELL and at any speed, keeping slack in the rope 100% of the time. A horse must lead where I go. A horse should stay with me, not bull ahead of me nor lag behind me. A horse should never, ever put tension on the lead rope. A horse's ideal position is their head at my shoulder, going my speed. I take the horse for walks, to go new places and see new things while we are working on our leading skills. (Also, use walks to "preview" locations for early ground driving or first rides so that they will be familiar to the horse when it is time for that.)
9. Load and unload safely and calmly on trailers, including "back out of a step-down" and load/unload on a ramp. Expose horse to as many trailers as possible. Load on. Stand. Unload. Stand. Load. Stand. Unload. A lot of times, do this. So many times. Do this a lot. Difficulty loading/unloading for ponies is a primary reason that the ponies get sold. Make sure that the pony COMPLETELY understands and is CALM AND COMFORTABLE with trailer skills. Also, take pony on a few short, gentle trailer trips. Drive Nice.
10. Stand for tacking up. Bridle on and off politely and without moving feet. Pony might have a "crossties" life but there are not always crossties in pony lives and you never know. Pony should NOT be difficult to tack up or bridle. Pony should stand tied quietly and accept being tacked up from either side. No tack item should be cause for sillies. TEACH horse how to to safely spit the bit. Stupid people will clock horse in teeth with bit but experienced horses will see to it that they don't get clocked by spitting bit out on their tongue. Teach them to do this by doing A LOT of unbridle, very slowly, and giving them the chance to learn. They figure it out pretty quickly.
11. Tolerate saddle with flopping stirrups for ground work. This is mostly for practice wearing the tack and the horse getting used to the sounds and sights of the tack moving about on the horse while the horse is working. If a horse is gonna jump out of his skin at the sound of a saddle creaking, I'd rather have him work that shit out while I'm on the ground.
12. Ground drive more-or-less calmly at walk and trot with functional steering and some away-from-home efforts. This is "learn about steering" and "listen to someone who isn't quite leading you" and "practice being away from home AND obedient at the same time" and so forth.
13. Understand how people will mount, stand fast and spread front legs for stability during mounting. A horse that knows how to stand braced for mounting is far less likely to walk off as a person swings aboard. Also, it helps horse feel more comfortable with the mounting process, to know what's coming and not feel so unbalanced.
14. Understand reins and left, right, halt, back up. This is done "in hand" by reaching over the horse's back while standing on the ground beside them. And then it's done by ground driving. A pony should understand reins pretty well before Ride #1.
15. A pony should tolerate a person in "corpse position" on their back. There is a lot of weight here but it's not terribly unbalanced if person is with hips on top of horse. Horse should be able to hold HIMSELF still for this step, no person at his head. Just, standing himself still, with a soft expression. It should look mostly like this:
(This is Trys's horse Tin, with me playing "corpse position". We're in the yard because I do not have a round pen. Yes, that is a doublewide. Yes, I am wearing sneakers. We are Oh So Classy. But also, this is horse holding a rider for first time ever in his life. Does he look worried or upset? Is he tight or nervous? Nope. He's fine. See soft eyes, relaxed interest? He's not at all pressed. This is Tin as a Horse Kindergarten graduate. (He stopped after taking a step or two forward.)
That's kindergarten. After that, we're riding. First rides are short and easy and at home. Ten minutes is a long first ride.
This shit is not hard to teach. It's like two, three weeks of ground work, maybe three days a week. It's safe. I'm on the ground and not going to get thrown off a horse. I don't see why people don't want to learn how to do this stuff.
Good Horse Kindergarten takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the first rides because by then you've won all sorts of battles, big and small, with the horse. After successful Horse Kindergarten, the horse is pretty on board with your projects because you win and you enforce your space and you make it freaking easier to go along with you than to... not.
Spend three weeks teaching actual skills (above) but know that the END GOAL is teaching the meta skill of Go Along Calmly And Try To Do The Thing because this is the most valuable gift you can give to a horse for later in life. And, when it's time to ride the horse, they kind of know how it will be if they DO NOT go along calmly and try to do the thing. And they know that even in the face of uncertainty, calm and good-effort strategies work better than freakouts, clear release of pressure will follow correct efforts, and there IS ALWAYS AN ANSWER THAT THE HORSE WILL BE ABLE TO FIND.
For what it's worth, I don't teach Parelli "go in circles" because I have some desire to stand and make a horse go in circles around me. That shit's like watching paint dry and I don't like it. I do not ever, ever make my broke horses do that bullshit once I know that they can come out the field or off the trailer and be sane. Birb, for example, hasn't done any rope work in about five years. But when the horse barely leads and can't hardly work a gate, "go in circles" is useful to teach because... horse must listen to me, horse must achieve the clear goal, horse must be able to attend to and follow directives sanely. And, having been taught that skill, if my super-green pony gets off the trailer high and tight during our first off-property outing, we're SO TOTALLY gonna run a few circles and reverses with me standing on the ground to make sure brain is firing on all cylinders BEFORE I throw a leg over. And if there is any difficulty, I will be ON THE GROUND to get the pony right with me and not on her back.
There may, at points in Horse Kindergarten, be some times when the horse looks a bit fraught. These are, however, short in duration and generally lead to better understanding afterwards. The horse may test you... is it OK to kick out a hind in the handler's general direction to exhibit displeasure at being asked to trot in a circle? No. No, it is most definitely NOT OK. If a horse pulls that, I make my unhappiness with the horse very clear and I take ground from them... get in their space, vigorously back them the shit up, be as big and loud as I can be, for three seconds. But then I shut it down and we go back to "we are all friends here". Back to calm. Back to polite. Back to simple, clear requests. It is VERY HARD for people to shut down the fury... but the trick here is to SOUND furious and ACT furious while not actually BEING furious. Keep corrections very short and sharp, make sure they end clearly and make sure that you do your very best to go back to "we are all friends here" afterwards. Observe horses in a field. They do as much as needed to get the reaction, and then they quit. You be like that. Do as much as needed, then quit. The quitting is super important.
So anyway, Snap has now met the bridle and done a teeny bit of ground driving in the driveway. Because we didn't have Sunday Hunting today, I rode Bird and took Snap for a drag down to the covered bridge and back this morning. It was 30F with wind out so I bundled up. (The horses live outside in a field. They are fully competent of operating in chilly weather with a breeze and not acting like shitheads.) Snap does not give shits about the cars. It was a total fucking snoozefest. A couple more of these and she's gonna be ready for a rider on the "ponying skills" front. We still have some riding readiness work to do, but not a whole lot.
I made Snap change sides (we went out with her in my right hand and came back with her in my left hand) for extra exposure. She doesn't much care but Bird likes her better out of my right hand. He would prefer that she not be on our left. Tough shit, Bird. The ponyed pony gets to be on whatever side I say. (When I say that he would prefer, I mean he was a tiny bit crankier. He didn't do anything bad. Nobody did anything bad.)
Birb is so broke, though. Like, so broke. He stands while I direct the pony around in front of him. He stands while I get on, ponying pony on the off side. He waits until I get my lead rope and shit all organized. So broke. We get back and I get off him. He stands, wearing his tack, while I tie the Snap pony. He stands while I untack him. He doesn't fuss. He doesn't wander off. He goes to his trough for the tiny bite of post-ride feed that he gets... but he doesn't move to go there until all his tack is off and he waits patiently for me to get him the bite.
Snap pony is so good. Stands while I drape the lead over Bird's neck. Stands while I get on Birb. Stands quietly, waiting. When we are in motion, she stays with her head RIGHT AT MY KNEE, keeps slack in the 18" of lead rope that she gets to play with, goes at my speed. She just trucks along, without me having to pull on her. When we practice halting, she stands beside Bird and doesn't try to wander around him or anything. She is so good.
This shit is so easy when all your horses are being good.
And I mentioned that without discussing why Bubba wasn't fixing up the pony for her own daughter. Bubba rides fairly effectively... but she doesn't make horses or start horses or fix skills on horses. Like, she is not a problem solver. I think she could be, if she wanted, but she's busy with a boyfriend and his daughter and her daughter and so forth. It's not going to happen from that quarter.
We don't have very many people who are willing to do "Horse Kindergarten" on horses to get them from do-not-ride to do-ride. Laur can do it but she hasn't in a couple of years. She used to do all the horses but of late she hasn't done very many. I think Cuervo was the last one she put any serious number of rides on, and that was like 2010 or something. Partly she's busy with her job and 4-H and partly she has a back that ain't what it could be. Trys will ride green things that have been through Horse Kindergarten and she does all right with that, mostly by way of not getting tight in her body and having a decent seat for mild greenbean shenanigans. She's never ridden anything that is actually out to get her and I am not confident that things would go well in that scenario, but for greenies that have been through effective Horse Kindergarten and are not terribly sharp-edged, she does well enough. Trys sucks at doing the ground work. She just isn't good at it, doesn't correct, doesn't make it sharp.
Liss (Laur's mom) used to send some out, but she hasn't done that in ages, either.
The Horse Kindergarten person we have at the moment is me. I've done Horse Kindergarten for... about sixteen horses now. Not a pro, but approaching skilled-ammie status. I don't love doing it, but once the horses have some utility, people will ride them and then they have value and can have careers.
What happens in Horse Kindergarten?
Learning, primarily learning that makes the horse nicer to be around. It sounds a lot like all I do is beat the pony, but that is NOT true and it is NOT the goal and honestly there is never a mark on the pony. Also, I do not "trick" or "sucker" the pony with grain to catch it nor is it living in a stall where "catching" it is trivial. Pony is loose and naked in a large (over ten acres) field with other ponies and if pony TRULY did not wish to engage with me, she could run my ass around the field for hours and hours before letting me put a hand on her. That does not happen. The ponies stand to be caught.
Yes, yes, fine. But what are the SKILLS? What SKILLS do you teach?
1. Stand to be caught and haltered. Do not try to rip out of my hands, do not turn your head away from the halter, do not bull past me by shoving me with your shoulder. Do not trot away shaking your head defiantly. STAND. Stand still while I halter you, politely. Stand AFTER I halter you until I decide to walk back to the gate.
2. Work gates POLITELY like a broke horse. When leaving the field, go through the gate as I stand and direct you through from the inside. Then, turn and face the gate and wait for me to come through, close and latch gate, and proceed. Stay out of my way, but unhurried and patient. When entering the field, wait for me to go through with the gate (our gate opens INTO the field) and hold the non-hinge end. Come through when I allow. Turn and face me, with slack in the rope, while I close and latch the gate. Stand politely to be unhaltered. WAIT until the halter is removed, then turn and politely walk off. At a walk. (I will never, ever slap my horse on the butt to "make it run" upon turning it loose. When horse is loose, that is HER TIME and she can do what she wants. When horse is caught, that is MY TIME and she goes the speed I say. Every one of my horses walks off politely when turned loose. Every time.) It only takes about three get-out-and-put-away efforts to improve gate skills on a horse. It makes them SO MUCH nicer to be around. It makes them SAFER to be around. It makes things better for everyone. Just fucking teach the gate skills.
3. Have patience while standing tied for more than half an hour. There are a lot of times in a grown horse's life where he will have to stand tied for more than half an hour. Maybe at a show, waiting for the hunter classes. Maybe on a trail ride, for the lunch break. Maybe for the farrier. Maybe on a high line picket overnight at a multiday trail ride. You do not know the job that the horse will be asked to do, but you DO have the ability to teach patience while standing tied. (By practicing, with a stout halter and a solid hitching post and repeated exposure to the concept.)
4. Be touched all over your body. Your body, as a pony, belongs to me when I have you caught. Your feet are my feet, your ears are my ears, your udder is my udder, your sheath is my sheath, all of you belongs to me and I can touch you anywhere I want. I will work on this with you and the intent is NOT to cause you pain or unhappiness but to make sure that you don't hurt the toddler who hugs your leg without warning or pulls your ear while you're trying to eat grass. I cannot prevent people from being stupid around you but I can teach you to be OK with stupid people. So... yeah. Get used to it.
5. Pick up your feet on demand and stand politely for simulated farrier work. Move and hold feet in all farrier-appropriate directions. Understand that there may at some point be metallic hammering on your feet and stand for that, too.
6. Move away from light hand pressure, particularly when directed at your shoulder, barrel, and hip. This is because you may be the "last horse" on the stock trailer who needs to shove the other ones back perpendicular instead of diagonal so that you have somewhere to stand. This is because maybe we need you to move over for reasons. It's also going to help you be a riding horse later on. Just learn to do it.
7. Learn rope skills (back up, circle, change-direction, head to ground, ground tie, turn out of rope, hide-your-butt). (I am not a Parelli devotee, please don't start with me over that.) I find these rope skills useful to develop a language with the horse for successful groundwork en route to riding readiness. I want the horse to LOOK to me to find out what to do. I want the horse to LEARN that (A) there is a 'correct' answer to any question I ask (B) the horse should search for the answer and (C) I will be clear and fast with my release of pressure when the horse finds the answer. Rope skills also help cement the idea that I am the person in charge and the horse is not the person in charge and also that it's a lot nicer when things go the way I want.
8. LEAD WELL and at any speed, keeping slack in the rope 100% of the time. A horse must lead where I go. A horse should stay with me, not bull ahead of me nor lag behind me. A horse should never, ever put tension on the lead rope. A horse's ideal position is their head at my shoulder, going my speed. I take the horse for walks, to go new places and see new things while we are working on our leading skills. (Also, use walks to "preview" locations for early ground driving or first rides so that they will be familiar to the horse when it is time for that.)
9. Load and unload safely and calmly on trailers, including "back out of a step-down" and load/unload on a ramp. Expose horse to as many trailers as possible. Load on. Stand. Unload. Stand. Load. Stand. Unload. A lot of times, do this. So many times. Do this a lot. Difficulty loading/unloading for ponies is a primary reason that the ponies get sold. Make sure that the pony COMPLETELY understands and is CALM AND COMFORTABLE with trailer skills. Also, take pony on a few short, gentle trailer trips. Drive Nice.
10. Stand for tacking up. Bridle on and off politely and without moving feet. Pony might have a "crossties" life but there are not always crossties in pony lives and you never know. Pony should NOT be difficult to tack up or bridle. Pony should stand tied quietly and accept being tacked up from either side. No tack item should be cause for sillies. TEACH horse how to to safely spit the bit. Stupid people will clock horse in teeth with bit but experienced horses will see to it that they don't get clocked by spitting bit out on their tongue. Teach them to do this by doing A LOT of unbridle, very slowly, and giving them the chance to learn. They figure it out pretty quickly.
11. Tolerate saddle with flopping stirrups for ground work. This is mostly for practice wearing the tack and the horse getting used to the sounds and sights of the tack moving about on the horse while the horse is working. If a horse is gonna jump out of his skin at the sound of a saddle creaking, I'd rather have him work that shit out while I'm on the ground.
12. Ground drive more-or-less calmly at walk and trot with functional steering and some away-from-home efforts. This is "learn about steering" and "listen to someone who isn't quite leading you" and "practice being away from home AND obedient at the same time" and so forth.
13. Understand how people will mount, stand fast and spread front legs for stability during mounting. A horse that knows how to stand braced for mounting is far less likely to walk off as a person swings aboard. Also, it helps horse feel more comfortable with the mounting process, to know what's coming and not feel so unbalanced.
14. Understand reins and left, right, halt, back up. This is done "in hand" by reaching over the horse's back while standing on the ground beside them. And then it's done by ground driving. A pony should understand reins pretty well before Ride #1.
15. A pony should tolerate a person in "corpse position" on their back. There is a lot of weight here but it's not terribly unbalanced if person is with hips on top of horse. Horse should be able to hold HIMSELF still for this step, no person at his head. Just, standing himself still, with a soft expression. It should look mostly like this:
(This is Trys's horse Tin, with me playing "corpse position". We're in the yard because I do not have a round pen. Yes, that is a doublewide. Yes, I am wearing sneakers. We are Oh So Classy. But also, this is horse holding a rider for first time ever in his life. Does he look worried or upset? Is he tight or nervous? Nope. He's fine. See soft eyes, relaxed interest? He's not at all pressed. This is Tin as a Horse Kindergarten graduate. (He stopped after taking a step or two forward.)
That's kindergarten. After that, we're riding. First rides are short and easy and at home. Ten minutes is a long first ride.
This shit is not hard to teach. It's like two, three weeks of ground work, maybe three days a week. It's safe. I'm on the ground and not going to get thrown off a horse. I don't see why people don't want to learn how to do this stuff.
Good Horse Kindergarten takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the first rides because by then you've won all sorts of battles, big and small, with the horse. After successful Horse Kindergarten, the horse is pretty on board with your projects because you win and you enforce your space and you make it freaking easier to go along with you than to... not.
Spend three weeks teaching actual skills (above) but know that the END GOAL is teaching the meta skill of Go Along Calmly And Try To Do The Thing because this is the most valuable gift you can give to a horse for later in life. And, when it's time to ride the horse, they kind of know how it will be if they DO NOT go along calmly and try to do the thing. And they know that even in the face of uncertainty, calm and good-effort strategies work better than freakouts, clear release of pressure will follow correct efforts, and there IS ALWAYS AN ANSWER THAT THE HORSE WILL BE ABLE TO FIND.
For what it's worth, I don't teach Parelli "go in circles" because I have some desire to stand and make a horse go in circles around me. That shit's like watching paint dry and I don't like it. I do not ever, ever make my broke horses do that bullshit once I know that they can come out the field or off the trailer and be sane. Birb, for example, hasn't done any rope work in about five years. But when the horse barely leads and can't hardly work a gate, "go in circles" is useful to teach because... horse must listen to me, horse must achieve the clear goal, horse must be able to attend to and follow directives sanely. And, having been taught that skill, if my super-green pony gets off the trailer high and tight during our first off-property outing, we're SO TOTALLY gonna run a few circles and reverses with me standing on the ground to make sure brain is firing on all cylinders BEFORE I throw a leg over. And if there is any difficulty, I will be ON THE GROUND to get the pony right with me and not on her back.
There may, at points in Horse Kindergarten, be some times when the horse looks a bit fraught. These are, however, short in duration and generally lead to better understanding afterwards. The horse may test you... is it OK to kick out a hind in the handler's general direction to exhibit displeasure at being asked to trot in a circle? No. No, it is most definitely NOT OK. If a horse pulls that, I make my unhappiness with the horse very clear and I take ground from them... get in their space, vigorously back them the shit up, be as big and loud as I can be, for three seconds. But then I shut it down and we go back to "we are all friends here". Back to calm. Back to polite. Back to simple, clear requests. It is VERY HARD for people to shut down the fury... but the trick here is to SOUND furious and ACT furious while not actually BEING furious. Keep corrections very short and sharp, make sure they end clearly and make sure that you do your very best to go back to "we are all friends here" afterwards. Observe horses in a field. They do as much as needed to get the reaction, and then they quit. You be like that. Do as much as needed, then quit. The quitting is super important.
So anyway, Snap has now met the bridle and done a teeny bit of ground driving in the driveway. Because we didn't have Sunday Hunting today, I rode Bird and took Snap for a drag down to the covered bridge and back this morning. It was 30F with wind out so I bundled up. (The horses live outside in a field. They are fully competent of operating in chilly weather with a breeze and not acting like shitheads.) Snap does not give shits about the cars. It was a total fucking snoozefest. A couple more of these and she's gonna be ready for a rider on the "ponying skills" front. We still have some riding readiness work to do, but not a whole lot.
I made Snap change sides (we went out with her in my right hand and came back with her in my left hand) for extra exposure. She doesn't much care but Bird likes her better out of my right hand. He would prefer that she not be on our left. Tough shit, Bird. The ponyed pony gets to be on whatever side I say. (When I say that he would prefer, I mean he was a tiny bit crankier. He didn't do anything bad. Nobody did anything bad.)
Birb is so broke, though. Like, so broke. He stands while I direct the pony around in front of him. He stands while I get on, ponying pony on the off side. He waits until I get my lead rope and shit all organized. So broke. We get back and I get off him. He stands, wearing his tack, while I tie the Snap pony. He stands while I untack him. He doesn't fuss. He doesn't wander off. He goes to his trough for the tiny bite of post-ride feed that he gets... but he doesn't move to go there until all his tack is off and he waits patiently for me to get him the bite.
Snap pony is so good. Stands while I drape the lead over Bird's neck. Stands while I get on Birb. Stands quietly, waiting. When we are in motion, she stays with her head RIGHT AT MY KNEE, keeps slack in the 18" of lead rope that she gets to play with, goes at my speed. She just trucks along, without me having to pull on her. When we practice halting, she stands beside Bird and doesn't try to wander around him or anything. She is so good.
This shit is so easy when all your horses are being good.
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Date: 2020-12-11 09:40 pm (UTC)