Success Comes in Different Sizes.

Just for the heck of it I'm going to share today in a story format.


The morning came and I didn't go running. Instead I watched Doctor Who. It is very easy to talk yourself out of doing exercise. Two o'clock rolls around and I was set to see what the horses would throw at me today. I go down in the basement, grab my maroon bike, haul it up the stairs and out the back door. It's a little strange, I think, to see someone riding a bike with cowboy boots on.
I roll down that black driveway past the house, the hay barn, the chicken barn, and the trailer; scare one of the fillies out of the barn, park my bike in that dusty barn, and took a deep breath of horse.
Remember that filly I scared out of the barn? Well I went to go say hello to the horses, and there was Coffie, Dash, and Frosty tearing around the pasture and having a good time. Bucking as they raced around. I watched as Coffie raced to catch up with Dash. She was turning, and all the sudden she stumbled! Her feet scrambled for footing, lost the epic battle of gravity and her body slid across the grassy ground. She promptly got up and started running again. I laughed at their antics, happy to be in this place.
Walking out to the horses they look at me and watch my approach. Toffy and Dash come to say hello like they do every time I walk out there. I go around and say hello to all the horses; Santana, Stretch, Misstack, Frosty, Coffie, Strudder, Ana, and left Blacky to graze; she prefers it that way. And all the while Dash follows me, like she always does, vying for attention. The funny thing is though, is that the moment I decide to go back to the barn she stops following me. It's like somehow she knows I no longer intend to stay.
I walk in the front of the barn, walk to the back of the barn, unlock the black and white door, and let it swing outward. Whistling those two notes that let the horses know when to come in, I walk towards the pasture gate. Whiiiiii, whooooo. The horses look at me for a while, but none of them move. I whistle again. Whiiiiii, whooooo. Still, they look at me without moving. Inwardly, I sigh. I guess I'll have to do this the hard way. I go back into the barn and grab three halters; Santana's, Ana's, and Misstack's. Santana is easy to catch. He walks away from me, and I let him. I look at his hindquarters, he swings them away and that's that. He lets me catch him. Ana is quite a bit harder. She has no desire to be caught, and it takes another five minutes for me to do so. I'd get close, and she'd trot away. But I am patient and take my time. Eventually she'll let me catch her. Misstack was about as easy as Santana to catch.
I lead those three back to the barn and try very hard not to get the ropes tangled up as I put them in their pens. As I am finishing up this task the other horses lazily walk into the barn and start wandering around. I get all the horses sorted, but don't worry about Stretch and Blacky. They don't have to stay in a pen if they don't want too. They won't cause any trouble. I bring Misstack, Santana, and Ana out of their pens again and tie them up to the posts on the back wall. I catch the fillies with the no complaint attitude that I always get from them, and tie them up to the posts on the South wall. I look down the row of horses and think, "Seven horses ey, better get started."
It took a little less than an hour to get those three horses caught, and all the others ready too, and to get all the horses brushed with clean feet, sprayed with fly spray, and the tack out and ready to be used.
The barn is quite as the horses stand quietly in their places, knowing that moving around will gain them nothing.
I got Frosty ready and walk out that black and white door on the South wall, next to the back wall. The sun finally decided to show its face while I was in the barn getting ready. I walk Frosty through the barrel and pole pattern. When I finished I get on and ask her to walk. She goes a few feet and stops. I ask again. This pattern repeats itself until we are a further away from the black and white door. Frosty walks with confidence, and strides out. She does not fear the world. I ask her to trot, and she shakes her head. No! she goes. But I insist I tell her. After a little more urging she trots... and then stops. I let her. I want her to be calm, and not stressed too much when we ride. We trot again for a little longer. At the end of the lesson she is trotting almost the entire length of the paddock which is long enough to accommodate room for poles, and not much more room than that.
I put Frosty away and saddle up Ana. She throws her head as I tighten up the cinch. I led her out of the barn, and try to get on as she walks away. I correct her, and try again. This time I am standing in the left stirrup before she starts walking. I do a one rein stop, and swing my leg over. We stand there for a little while. When we started going again, I let her choose the pace. At first it worked. She slowed down sooner without my nagging, then she got hyper. She was bucking when we cantered. Sadly I don't think slapping her does anything to her. She has realized that it doesn't hurt so bad and therefore ignores it. She was tearing around the paddock like your mother on Thanksgiving Day and the relatives are coming! I finally decided that was enough and did one rein stops. I got her walking nice and we stopped and stood there. Terry had pulled up in his truck with the lawn mower sitting in a little trailer behind him. We talked for a little bit about what we'd been doing and I quit with Ana.
Toffy was doing really well. We were just walking around, and I was having a little discussion with myself about whether or not to trot her. Terry had gone and got Frosty and was clipping her feet and I decided to trot her. I called Terry's name and he came walking over.
"Can you longe her while I ride?"
He laughs and says, "We both need each other's help. I need you to hold Frosty for me because she moves around too much so I figured I'd wait until you were done." He goes back and gets the longe line and the whip.
We took off the lead rope hanging from her halter and secured to the saddle horn and I instruct Terry, "When she starts trotting only let her do it for a couple of steps, then pull her slowly and gently towards you. We don't want her to think about it too much. The longer she has to think about it the more time she has to freak out."
Terry asks her to trot, and she does. He slows her down and we pet her and tell her she's a good girl. We ask her to trot one more time and this time we let her trot halfway around the little circle before slowing her down. I slide down and lead her into the barn.
Misstack had gotten ridden this morning, but I rode her anyway. I get on and asked her to do flexing. She is a little stiff, but not too bad. We work on neck reining. I barely move my hand to the left, wait a second, direct rein her to the left as I slide my left leg back and move her hindquarters over. I also work on her enter and exit of the barrel. Sometimes she likes to go too wide, so I circle the barrel until we're closer and take off all pressure from my legs when we get there. Other times she wants to get too close. I push her out a little bit with my inside leg. She is very inconsistent with the barrels. When I finish I do flexing again before I get off and take her into the barn.
I get Coffie and lead her through the barrels and poles. I lead all the fillies through the barrels and poles. Mostly we do trotting. We are on the South end of the paddock and I ask her to trot. Then a couple birds dive out of a tree and she spooks away from them. My heart skips half a beat, but I calmly pull gently on the reins to the right, which is where she wants to go anyway. She settles down and we start walking again. We trot, and her trot is beautiful. She does it so easily and without worry. We trot a little more, farther than Frosty did, and call it good.
I saddle up Santana and Dash. Terry brings out Dash while I bring out Santana, and holds onto Dash while I ride Santana. I work on neck reining. He's not too bad at it. It just needs a little fine tuning. I work with him on his turns around the barrel like I did with Misstack too. I ask him to turn the third barrel, and he shoots out of that turn bucking. I turn him and do a one rein stop. I do the barrel pattern one more time before going and getting Dash from Terry. Dash is wearing a back cinch and has had the most trouble with it. That's most of the reason why we haven't been riding her. We've been longing and ponying trying to get her as used to that back cinch as possible before we get on. We walked for a little while and then trotted. One thing I love about Santana is that he doesn't care were the other horse is. It doesn't bother him. That's why I use him for ponying. That and he's one of our only horses that can neck rein decently. I get off Santana, and get on Dash. Terry leads her around and she's totally fine with it. Tomorrow I might add walking alone to it.
We tie Santana and Dash back up to their posts, unsaddle and put the tack away. By this time it is six o'clock. We undo the halters from the horses and watch as they run outside, around the back of the barn, and through the pasture gate. It was a good day.