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Lesson Night

12/22/2011

6 Comments

 
But first, here was Sydney during his turnout on Sunday.  It's relevant to the lesson ...
There's an elephant in the room.  It's my own personal elephant, but he's still in the room.  The elephant's name is Fear.  Yup.  I have some fear issues when it comes to Sydney.  He's big, he's stiff to bend, and he's fast. I had BIG fear issues with Speedy for a while.  That elephant's name was What If?  After Speedy threw me pretty violently two years ago, every time I got on him I got a case of the what ifs?  It took about six months to kick that elephant to the curb.  God must think I'm running a circus down here.  I am trying to convince him that I am not.  So this elephant needs to go.

What does this have to do with Wednesday?  As soon as I got on, I knew that Sydney was not going to work well for the lesson.  The fear started to build.  When he's tense like that, he wants to explode.  We started with lots of walking as I tried to lengthen his neck and get him to relax.  After Sunday's wild turnout, I had hoped that the energy building in Sydney had dissipated somewhat. Nope.  He was wound up tight and ready for an explosion.  I made a huge effort to keep my fear at bay, but elephants are large and cumbersome and difficult to hide.

JL quickly saw that we were not going to be working a relaxed horse, so her lesson plans changed.  Alright, she said, let's just work on letting him move forward without worrying where his head is.  She had me keep enough control in that event that he bolted, but I wasn't to ask for anything more.  In fact, she encouraged me to think, yeah, forward, that's what I want, too!  So instead of slowing him down, which is what I desperately wanted to do, I asked him to trot forward boldly.  And I mean BOLDLY. We hustled around that arena.  For more than forty minutes.

And little by little, the elephant got bumped and jostled until he squeezed his fat, old frame through the gate. I am sure he was lurking in the bushes somewhere, and he'll no doubt be back, but for that night, I managed to get rid of him.  Allowing my can-go-crazy thoroughbred to go a little crazy, gave me some confidence.  It wasn't an easy ride, but we made it to the end.  And you know how these things go: once Sydney had burned off more than thirty minutes of some serious steam, he finally got down to business.  He finally went round and soft, he moved off my inside leg, and we even worked on outside leg to inside rein.

As always, what a great lesson!
6 Comments
Candy Perez
12/22/2011 04:00:19 am

I am sure you will be able to rid yourself of this elephant just as you did the other. I understand though I have been there and it takes time.

Reply
Karen Sweaney link
12/22/2011 09:55:53 am

Candy - thanks for the encouragement. We'll get there, I know, but I hope it's sooner rather than later!

Reply
Sandy
12/22/2011 12:20:19 pm

He's a right brain extravert! I would be more concern with kicking AT you than the extra energy.

Reply
Karen Sweaney
12/22/2011 09:33:58 pm

Sandy,

That's why I was standing on the OUTSIDE of the fence. It's hard to tell from the video, but he kicks that section of fence quite often. There are quite a few dings in the fence from his antics. He probably was kicking AT me as well, but he has a very sweet personality and these theatrics don't carry over into his stall or other in hand work. In fact, one thing I've been doing more of with him is ground work in the arena. Lots of yielding the hind quarters, backing like you mean it, and so on.

He's trying to be a good boy and will get there eventually!

Thanks for reading!
Karen

Reply
martina peterson
12/23/2011 07:11:12 am

Karen I was a bit scared just sitting on Sydney with you leading him for me. When you look down it seems to look like a very long fall if one was to get dumped off. Okay, I said it and I'm not one least bit embarrassed. Oh, by the way, I'm typing on my brand new computer. It feels like a rolls royce compared to my other one. I no longer have to squint to see the monitor.. You and Sean have a great Christmas and you much deserved time off. Thankyou so much for the Harry and David package. Yummy! You guys are so sweet to think of us.

Reply
Karen Sweaney
12/23/2011 09:29:54 am

Thanks, Mom! I rode Sydney again this afternoon and had a much better ride. I am glad the treats made it in time for Christmas. New computer, cool!

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    About the 
    Writer & Rider

    I am a lifetime rider. 
    I began endurance riding in 1996 where I ultimately completed five, one-day 100 mile races, the 200-mile Death Valley Encounter, and numerous other 50, 65, and 75 mile races. I began showing dressage in 2010.
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