Through October and the beginning of November, Maggie continued to do very well during our rides. Looking back, I guess this was our "honeymoon" period. One thing she started to do was what we referred to as "exit stage left" - she would pop out her shoulder towards the barn and then her body would follow that shoulder. Because she didn't fully understand leg and rein aids yet, my attempts to get her back into the ring resulted in her getting "jack-knifed" off to the side of the ring, and then she would just stop, ignoring all aids to go forward. We worked through this by initially riding her away from the barn, therefore increasing the distance she would have to travel (and increasing my odds of keeping her in the ring), and also anticipating her exit, which usually occured at the same spot, and getting her moving really forward. She also picked up a fun new trick of rearing. The first time she did it, I was riding her all alone at the barn, so for safety sake, I immediately got off my now-rearing 3 year old racehorse. Of course, being a clever mare, Maggie figured out that rearing is a great way to get out of doing something she doesn't like. She started doing a lot of "spin-and-rears" that fortunately didn't escalate, but still made for difficult rides. Maggie's behavior on the ground was also bad at this point. To be honest, none of this behavior was unexpected for a 3 year old TB and it certainly could have been a lot worse, but it still shook my confidence quite a bit. My trainer was not concerned about my ability to ride through these behaviors (I do have good "stickability" - Maggie's very worst, when she did a sudden big rear-buck-twist, still only managed to knock me out of my position a little); I was just scared. My trainer rode Maggie a couple of times (and of course she was perfect), and then we did some ground-work lessons to help me rebuild my confidence and develop some good habits for Maggie. Leading up to Christmas, I was honestly too scared to ride a lot of the time. A 5-minute walk with Annie right by my side was a big success for awhile. As we got into the beginning of 2013, I was increasing my confidence bit by bit, riding for longer, adding some trot back in, and learning how to be a tougher rider. I found that if I just pretended that Maggie's "incidents" were no big deal, eventually they started to really feel like no big deal. I've had some challenges in my riding career, and this ranks among the toughest. I had to force myself to be bold, even when I was feeling it the least.
 |
| Maggie tries to "exit stage left" - November 2012 |
 |
| What kept me going during the rough patches was moments like this, when I could see I had a talented horse on my hands (November 2012) |
Sounds like pretty typical 3 year old stuff to me! Rose tried to exit stage left (literally) a few times. There was one memorable ride where I ran (and I mean canter here) her into a wall because come hell or high water she was not getting grab the bit and go to the left. It was the wall or continuing to go right. So, she got the wall. After that she realized I meant business and didn't try it as much or with as much gusto. And she NEVER tried it when my trainer rode her! I'm so glad you are blogging. It's fun getting to catch up and follow along. Bringing back lots of memories for me!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately (or fortunately?) we don't have walls to run into. But my equivalent was during a lesson when we had just started to add the trot back in. We were working at the end of the arena away from the barn and my trainer asked for a small trot circle. So of course Maggie fights to turn left, and I fought back harder. But our nice little trot circle turned into a large canter all the way around the outside of the ring. But at least we were going to the right!
ReplyDelete