Well we are hunkered down inside for another blizzard. I figured it was high time I posted some updates. (does anyone even read this stuff? who knows...) ANYway...
* Onyx has no problem letting me pick up all 4 feet now. I can clean them out, wiggle her hoof around and tap on the bottom of her foot and it's all no big deal. I'm trying to get her ready for a trim before the show.
* We did some more work with the bit yesterday. I started off lunging her in the surcingle and I introduced side reins to give her some pressure on the bit. She's comfortable carrying the bit around now, but I'm still not sure how far we'll get with it in the next couple of weeks. I've been debating weather or not to ride her in a halter for the competition. If she's not comfrtable enough with the bit by then I just might do that. I'm not sure if it will help or hinder us at the competition, but at the end of the day I'm going to do what's best for her. She's totally comfortable in the halter and is very responsive to it so I see no reason to rush into the bit for the sake of the show. I'll continue to work her with the bit of course. If her new owner wants to ride her in a bridle I want her to have been exposed to it.
* We also did more in hand practice yesterday. I discovered that there was a wooden bridge in the pile of props in the arena. So I dragged that out and set it up. I was pretty sure it wouldn't pose much of a problem since she'll follow me anywhere I ask her to. Sure enough, she hesitated the very first time and afterwards we clopped back and forth across it several times. No big deal. Next I'll ride her over it and then we can cross that off the list. I've also introduced her to walking over a "pole". Hidden in the "prop pile" I found several long PVC pipes so I brought one out and had her walk back and forth across it. Again, she hesitated the very first time and then she was fine. I'm very glad to have found the bridge and the pipes there because I had started to wonder where to find poles to practice with and I had just asked Jeff if we could build one of the bridges. My only concern with the PVC pipes is that they are pretty small. I think the "standard" walk over pole is a much larger diameter, so I hope that doesn't cause a problem if we are required to walk/trot over some poles at the show.
* We've had a couple more rides in the past week. She's been pretty grumpy and I'm thinking it may be "that time of the month". She'll do what I ask of her, usully without a fight, but she was doing some pretty ornrey stuff as well. Our last ride this week, we worked on trotting circles and I did some more work with her on responding to leg pressure. She was doing well, but a couple times she swung her head around and tried to bite my boot. During the first couple circles at a trot, I felt her pop her butt up once. Not a proper buck, but she was letting me know there were ither things she'd rather be doing. I just pushed on through and she cooperated after that. She seems to throw little tantrums from time to time, but it seems that the trick is to just keep riding her through it and she comes out the other side more willing to work. She is a silly girl.
* On the grooming front I've been going after her every day with my trusty shedding stone and her coat is really starting to look good. She's not "slicked out" but she has this overall "plush" look to her, I think it looks nice. She's been introduced to the clippers and yesterday I did some trim work on her. I got rid of what Jeff called her "man beard" (the long hairs under her jaw) and did some other touch ups here and there. I unbraided her mane and brushed it out, then did some more scissor work to try and even it out. Her hair is SO thick and now that it's shorter it's pretty bushy. She has this long pretty section of hair at her withers and I haven't had the heart to cut it yet. I guess it would look pretty goofy for her mane to be all 4-5 inches long and then have a foot or so at her withers so I imagine I'll have to break down and trim that too. I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave her fetlocks and whiskers natural. I read in the rules that they aren't supposed to penalize for that. I'm no clipper whiz so I'm afraid if I tried to do her fetlocks I'd butcher the job, lol. Faces I can do, but I've never really done more than that.
I think that about covers it all except for the big piece of news....
Jeff rode Onyx!!
On Friday afternoon I was just getting ready to ride her and I asked if he wanted to come and watch. I walked her around, worked on turnarounds and did some trotting, stopping and backing. I also had him walk up to her and pet her. She gets really insecure when I'm on her and there are people around. So I wanted to work on that. After I dismounted, he asked if he could ride her. I hesitated, not sure if it was a good idea. He's only been on a horse about 5 times or so and I wasn't sure what would happen... She was a little nervous when he got up next to her to get on. Then after he was up, I walked around a bit and she followed me wherever I went. Then I told him if he was ready he could take her out solo. So he turned her away from me and... Well, I'll let the video speak for itself...
She did SO well! (and for the record Jeff did really well too - heehee) I had expected some sort of crazy rodeo scene, but I just don't give either of them enough credit. At dinner that night I told Jeff that I'm not good at taking credit for things I can do with horses. I've had so many people tell me that I've done a great job with Bo, my stallion. I usually just shrug and say "well he's a good horse". But I told Jeff that I think I should take some credit for this one. Just over 2 months ago she was a totally wild horse and no one could even touch her. And now, someone who's only ridden a few times can get on her and ride around. He said yes, I've done a good job with her and I should take credit for that. *blush*
I've selected a song for the finals, if we are picked for the top ten. According to the rules all trainers have to provide music for the finals and all trainers should have a finals performance ready. My goal in the beginning was to be in the top 10. Because of the setbacks in the weather and so on, I had downgraded my aspirations to just not making a complete fool of myself. But I'm back to daring to hope that I can make the top 10 again. We still have a LOT of work to do, and I'm certainly NOT happy about beig snowd in again. But I think we still might be able to do it. So I've selected a song and I've started envisioning what we can do for the finals. I think I've got a good "show" planned, hopefully we'll get to do it!
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