20 minutes - ground work
I love Rhulain. She might not feel the same thing about me after today's session though.
First was trying saddles on for fit. I realized the new saddle fits perfectly with no pad, but the fleece backed pad was too thick causing pinching in Rhu's shoulders. I switched it for Morgie's 1/2" felt backed pad and it worked like a charm.
Tossed on her bitless and out the gate we went. Cotton tail rabbit hopped out from a bush about 30 feet away and Rhu jumped sideways. We tried going up a sand dune. She lifted her head, started breathing quickly, and planted her front hooves. I swung out of the saddle and lead her up and around the dune. Then I got back in the saddle and asked her to follow the exact same path. Hesitant, but she did.
* Saw a rattlesnake going in to it's hole on another dune nearby. 2nd time I've seen a snake using that hole, so I've made note not to go near that area/dune.
Rhu's brain wasn't with me today, at all. She was jumpy and headstrong, so I turned her towards home after 10 minutes. We fought the whole way home because I wanted a walk and she wanted a panicked lope. We settled for a slightly rushed trot.
Once we got home, we worked on walk-trot-walk-stop in the circular driveway for 20 minutes until I thought we had our cues down. Then I added a lope component and we fell apart.
She was trying hard, but she started getting irritated. I was trying hard, but I started getting irritated. So we stopped, took deep breaths, and did absolutely nothing for 2 minutes ... a time out for both of us changed our perspective. She stopped wringing her tail and I remembered the problem was my lack of ability to communicate in a language she understood. We worked on it for another 15 minutes until I felt we had a good stopping point. Did we nail it? Nope, but we got better.
After almost an hour, she was pretty sweaty. I pulled out the hose and she made it clear she did NOT like the hose. So we spent another 20 minutes approaching and retreating with the hose, gently misting her, then waiting until she relaxed. Got both sides of her torso and all four legs so I called it quits. Scraped off the extra water and told her our next outing would be fun again. We'll back burner the downward transition cue for at least two sessions.
She promptly rolled in the sand and shook it all over me. Have I mentioned I love that horse? I truly do. I laughed and hugged her hard.
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