One step forward three steps sideways

This is how terrifying the scary gate is. Does it look terrifying? 

We had what I took as a positive evening yesterday, Rio appears to be taking objection to leaving his field at the moment, but once I got him out of the first gate, last night he walked through here and stood nicely when I closed it. Today, we disagreed about leaving the field, and then spent 10 minutes around this gate trying to establish that the grass ghouls had left the area. 

Last night, I was very proud of myself and how calm I stayed when he was being a bit silly and playing up. Tonight, I had to remind myself to breathe, and that we aren't raising voices any more. I had to opt for keeping his feet moving and having him move laterally in the hope that it would generate him some confidence in what I was asking of him. 

I resorted myself to just making it out of the field, we had a little wander and Rio had some grass to settle. I decided that we would head up to the barn after all, and we had another discussion at scary point number 2 by the bath tubs. After a lot of walking in wiggly snaking lines, and some more lateral work, we made it past. 

I have simple aims with each evening at the moment:

1. Getting out of the field, hopefully with less disagreements as time goes on
2. Tying up at the barn, to get Rio used to standing quietly on his own, and getting accustomed to his surroundings in his own time
3. Picking feet without argument, and remaining relaxed (both of us!)
4. Having Rio stand at the mounting ramp with me standing next to him on it, and leaning on/over him

I hope that this little routine will gradually build my confidence and his trust, because although we have issues at the beginning of the evening, he is more than happy to play at liberty when we get back to the field! If only he trusted me as much out of the field as he does in it. He's so funny bless him. Just need to get working on my parelli games so that he knows where my personal space is, and then hopefully it will help us get further together. With being off on holiday in 8 days, I could really do with him being less stubborn coming out of the field as friends are going to be taking care of him!!

Just in case you hadn't noticed, I have a bit of a thing for the skies at the moment. Aren't they just lovely? They are all from the last few days, the last one was this evening, and I was expecting a storm to break out any minute, but the skies were blue 20 minutes later!

Ride/play safe x

And my education begins

I'm going to give Parelli a go. It makes sense to continue to work on our relationship on the ground whilst I'm nervous of hopping into the saddle, so I'm going to take it as a positive thing, and hopefully work on improving our trust in each other. From now on I will try to focus on the positives, and we can work on the rest, so here goes.

Achievements of today:

• Walking out of the second electric gate without much fuss (we won't mention the first for now!)
• Facing down a stray green balloon
• Not completely trampling me at the sight of the two terrifying geese, although it was a bit hairy for a second!
• Walking past said geese when they had flown off and regrouped further up without any fuss at all
• Walking in and out of the arena gate three times with only one hesitation
• Standing quietly by the mounting ramp, even with me above him, and leaning on him for a moment

Ride / play safe x

Confidence Crisis

 Looking like butter wouldn't melt after ignoring me for three days when I was pottering in his field!

What with not riding due to waiting for my foot tattoo to heal, and Rio being a bit of a pillock on the yard at the moment, my confidence has taken a knock. I'm perfectly happy to work in hand with him but just getting into the saddle feels like an accomplishment! I took him out around the field last week on our own, and he spooked and attempted to rear up a couple of times in the scary corner. I walked him off, and we did a loop and did it from the other direction with the same result, but I didn't get off, I didn't fall off, and I resolved to keep calm and get him back to the yard. That actually made me feel a bit better, knowing I could stay on, but on Friday I decided to walk him out in hand on the lunge line to get him used to being in the scary corner. Clever old me forgot to grab gloves!

I'm not kidding when I say I would rather have another foot tattoo (because that barely hurt!) than experience rope burn EVER again. However, it has healed fairly quickly, and I was back in the saddle last night for what I hoped would be a mooch around the village with Sarah and Franks. There were no major dramas, we made it past spook corner without spooking, through the overgrown exit of the field, and around the roads, past the barking dog behind the fence, and on the way home he decided to get an absolute stomp on and get a bit jiggly. I did my best to relax, and we made it home in one piece, so now I just have to stick with it and try and make hacking normal again. 

I'm off on holiday in a couple of weeks, so Sarah will be taking care of Rio and he'll be having a bit of a boot camp. Fingers crossed, having a more confident rider will give him a boost and a helping hand too, and I think she's looking forward to having a play with him! He's certainly getting a bit of Welshy character about him, and we're working on keeping the bulshiness at bay. I still love playing in the field with him, when he's in the mood for it, we have such fun :)

Ride safe x

Building blocks

Rio is a people person, which is very helpful. However, whilst he is brave on the outside, and the obvious "scaries" don't seem to phase him, he does revert to being a baby in the most peculiar situations. He was so brave at the play day on Sunday, and then twice this week he has planted himself before we get to the second electric gate again. I wish I knew what caused it, because he doesn't fuss (at the moment!) at the first electric gate. 

We had been playing the Friendly Game for a bit, I've had to improvise by using my schooling whip and utilising my lead rope - today and last night I opted for my lunge line. He's very steady when playing Friendly, and last night I was swinging the lunge line around both of our heads and he was standing very quietly. As soon as we went to walk out of the field however, he would just stop. I ended up having to send him out on a circle a couple of times then driving him sideways to bring him closer to the gate, before practically dragging him the last three steps through. Once through, he's absolutely fine. Go figure. 

We have plenty to work on, but I'm confident we will get there in the end. He's forever for me, so if it takes years to build our perfect bond, it doesn't matter. 

Rio had his second shoeing today, and was being a bit cheeky for the farrier. He started by moving his foot back a minimal amount, which started to develop to trying to take his foot back completely. With a well timed reaction, he was put back in his place, and didn't try it again. We saw a baby fox cub when walking back down to the field! SO CUTE! Wish I could have taken a photo but when it spotted Rio and me, it was off into the hedge. 

Ride safe x

Parelli Play

Today was a great day. Rio tried out his new leather headcollar, and looked so very smart. When we got to the parelli play day, it was changed for a rope halter and long line. The above is the first attempt and demo of how I was to play the Friendly Game. Rio was unsure of what to make of it all at first. He wasn't worried about the carrot stick and didn't move away when asked, and then took a few rounds of "lunging" before he settled. 

After a little while of playing Friendly, he soon got the idea. It's as much of a learning curve for me as well as him - if not more so for me! He's such a clever boy. Holding the carrot stick in the appropriate position, dropping your energy, and slumping when they've responded correctly - it's a lot to think about! 

We learned about moving off, and trying to drive from zone 3 (much harder than expected...) this took some effort initially but that was more down to me not grasping the concept to begin with. We tried to mix this in with some target touching, which had some mixed results, but he achieved so much in such a short space of time, I really was so pleased. 

Standing at ease with no grass munching! You can see him watching to see what we're going to do next. There were so many photo opportunities today, and he had his ears forward so much - I was too busy having fun to play photographer even though I had taken two cameras. It's no wonder Rio was all sweaty - we worked and thought hard!

Before lunch we had a little play in the arena with a tarpaulin, and he didn't bat an eyelid at it - he thought it was great fun following it around, and barely moved when I put it over him. He did have it up higher than this but I didn't get a photo, and he was happy walking with it over him too. Brave little man! We left both boys loose in the arena when we stopped for a spot of lunch. Whilst they have travelled together a number of times now, and been out on adventures together, they've never been in a field together before. They were having an awesome time in the arena, but sadly as soon as we headed over to try and get some footage, there they were like butter wouldn't melt! 

With all of the larking around, and once Rio had become a little acquainted with the big bouncy ball, we played with it some more, and I managed to get him to walk into it a couple of times to push it along with his chest. After a little more work on the ground, and with almost everyone else taking part in the barrel racing, I headed over to tack up and hop on for a little 10 minute ride to ease back in. Little did I know that this would be an impromptu lesson with Sarah, and with Rio very relaxed and paying attention, the pressure was on me not to let him down! 

We did walking over poles, and then some trotting over poles, which threw me a little as it was the first time of doing 4 trot poles in a row and I'd never experienced him truly picking himself up like that. He even was offering up odd strides of canter, so Sarah said it would be a good time to try and get an established canter for a length of the arena. The only problem with that is my hands! I don't think it helped that I've been out of the saddle for a couple of weeks now, but I know I do it anyway, I ALWAYS throw my hands away when I ask for canter. If I'm not throwing them away, I'm snatching them back when he goes to boost off into canter, and therefore blocking him. He "springs" into canter and in a schooling environment, it still catches me off guard. 

Luckily I have a neck strap and it has proven today to be a great addition to Rio's wardrobe. By looping two fingers through the neck strap, I was able to keep my inside hand down, and in turn my loose outside hand stayed much more still, and gave me the control I needed to keep him out. With a little bit of pony club kicking and some dodgy sitting trot, we made it at least half way around the arena a couple of times! He dropped out of it on his own, so before we finished, we had a canter on each rein where I ensured I was the one to ask for the downward transition. It was great. I was starting to feel like I was letting him down, but thanks to the neck strap and some positive guidance from Sarah, we made it!

Ride safe x

Spring in our step

Looking good! Rio has been enjoying the spring grass in his new field. It doesn't help that I've still not been riding, as I've been waiting for the infection in my foot to go down. The good news is that it's looking much better so I'm hoping to get riding again next week! The bad news, is that he's only been worked twice in the last couple of weeks by my friend, and although he looks rather lush in the picture above, this is the reality!

Belly's gonna get ya! He's a round mucky little chubster! I remembered to grab some dettol when we went shopping this evening so I can at least give him a hot wash this weekend. We're off to a parelli play day on Sunday to see if we can't teach him something new and stimulate him a bit after a quiet couple of weeks. I'm a little nervous and a little excited, and a little dubious of being in my boots for several hours and on my feet, but I'm quite sure it will be worth it. We're taking Archie the goat again, and I'm hoping to get lots of photos too.

I've also had a bit of a play with a couple of the photos from our shoot last week, have a peek!

Ride safe x

Saturday Snaps [picture heavy!]

Ride safe x