Listening and Learning

I listened to my horse today. I saddled and bridled Coffie. First observation - she was a little wary. Second observation - when I banged on he saddle and flapped the stirrups she nearly jumped to high heaven. I didn't ride today. I worked on bridling and I desensitized her to a plastic bag. I am also starting to just throw the tack on. She spooked a little at that. I took it a little slower, gradually increasing the impact and then letting the stirrup down. Her session took me an hour and 45 minutes. She was shaking her head trying to avoid the bit when I put it in so I worked on that. When I moved onto the plastic bag she wouldn't let me put it between her ears. I wanted her to step on the bag too. She bucked a couple of times. She'll step on the bag and she'll let the bag go between her ears.
I think that we need to keep up a regular desensitizing regimen. I think that the more I desensitize right now the better. It will make her a little bit safer when I get on and ride. I also think that I need to lounge her in tack so that she can get used to the feel of it. I think I should do it with all the fillies too.
I basically did the same thing with Frosty that I did with Coffie except that there wasn't a plastic bag. I was thinking about riding her too, but she just felt too nervous. She didn't want to stand still. I tacked her all up and then desensitized to the saddle stirrups and then I just let her trot around me until she got a little calmer.
Aleythia worked with Dash on bridling and desensitizing to a plastic bag.            
I did ride Toffy. I worked on going, turning, trotting, and backing up. She got a little scared when a chicken got scared right in front of her and that caused her to buck a little bit but I was able to turn her and she calmed down. Trotting was fun. She has a really funny feeling trot. Almost all the trots I have ever ridden have made me go up and down. Here's is more of a side to side motion and the only thing I can think of to compare it to is a fox trotter's trot. It's weird. She trotted really nicely though. She also got backing up down quite well. Dang she can back up better than my older horses. I did a brief thing on getting her to flex at the poll and when she had done that a couple times I kept the pressure until she backed up a step. She was resistant at first. She would shake her head and try to get rid of it somehow. But she did figure it out. By the time I finished riding her I would pull bag really lightly on the reins and she would back up a couple steps. Beautiful horse.
Here's a short video on teaching turning with Toffy.                                               

 

 

I have the first post of my other blog up! Go check it out! It took a while to get everything the way I wanted it and there will probably be more changes to come, but in the meantime enjoy!