Teaching People and Horses

Last Saturday, I was able to show off the fillies to my oldest sister, Emily. Well, I wasn't just gunna let her sit there and watch me work with the foals, and being that Aleythia had left that morning for a camp in Colorado, some help would be nice. So, I gave Emily a lead rope and we caught two of the foals, and I taught her how to teach a horse. It was quite fun. At one point I was commenting that Emily was being really careful around the filly she had. So, I explained to her that the more you act like your horse is going to explode the more he will explode. So, I demonstrated with the filly I had, I slapped my hand on her head and rubbed her head, repeating it till she didn't react to my hand being put abruptly on her head, and ranted and raved about how I was gunna set a firework off by her head and it would be soo much fun, and making a general fool out of myself! Emily was laughing at me.

Later she told me that that was fun. She explained to me that horses aren't quite her thing, but she enjoyed being able too see my knowledge about horses, and how I had grown. She said that I had become a leader... 

All I want to say is that when someone tells you that you have been doing a good job or something along that line, it means a lot. If you have someone who looks up to you and values your opinion, I would encourage you to tell them they are doing a good job, or something else you can compliment them on.

Over the last couple days I have been working with the fillies on moving their hindquarters, backing up,  leading, moving their shoulders, tying, lunging (walk or trot), and desensitizing. I have trouble leading a few of them, but I have discovered the more pressure you use when you want them to take a step, the harder they brace against it, it works much better to have light pressure, and let them find the answer. Today, we gave Frosty a bath. That's Frosty in the picture above. Taken maybe two weeks ago. Well, when we gave her a bath, we started with her feet, and she did.... nothing. We took the water away maybe every eight seconds as a reward, but she didn't react to it at all. When we got to her neck she was a little reactive, but all she did was lift her head a bit higher. For her head, we just put a thumb over the hose, and pointed it towards the sky, so that it would be like rain was falling on her head. She tried to avoid it, but was generally pretty good. (When I say we, I mean Carter and me)

I rode Santana yesterday too. It has been decided that I will ride Santana in the fair instead of Carter. Carter's excuse was that he had not been riding him enough. I told him that I haven't either, and he replied that I knew how to control him. I actually don't blame him for not wanting to ride Santana in the fair. Santana is generally calm, but you run him through those barrels or poles, and he becomes a horror to ride. To me it's kind fun, but to a kid who hasn't ridden anything but a calm pony, it's scary. And what I mean as fun, is it's fun getting him to calm down. Not fun, where I let him do it.

Santana

This is of me riding Santana last year at the fair in barrels. I think our time was about 16.9 seconds. The video below is of us coming in. He was so hyper Terry had to lead him in, and I had to get him into the corner. The first time I was in jumping figure eight, and Terry let him go, and he shot forward, and I was so not ready. When  I feel out of control in the saddle I turn my horse in a circle. Well, the only problem with that was that he crossed the timer line, so we were disqualified. He did that two more times in separate classes, but in the class he didn't cross the time line was barrels, and we won first place. And I just thought I would say that the first day showing him, he did everything perfect.