Night and day

Finally the weather was such that my trainer could come out and work with the girls. Hazer! Jezebel was up first and started off good and got progressively worse. She was determined to not hold her body straight when asked. Throwing a shoulder out and occasionally throwing it in. Anything to not go straight. It was a struggle. Shes much better with consistent work and i think she just had too much time off because of the weather and she was being pissy about working at all. Michelle is much more stubborn then my wild mare and in her persistent, patient way kept asking IE telling Jez to do as she was told this pissed the wild one off and the bucking began. Small bucks at first… at first. A the session progressed Jez got more mad at being told to do anything and decided that she was going to ignore Michelle’s leg. Jez wanted to make up her own rules and they started with “Leg on means not to go forward” Michelle was not standing for this one and the thumping and occasional tap of the whip were engaged. Jez’s response.. bigger bucks then moving forward. You could see it happening from the ground, Jez would telegraph her actions it started in the ears when she was going to ignore her leg on cue and always at the same couple of places in the arena. Ears, Leg on, slowdown, correction, buck, eventual giving in. It went on like this throughout the session. At all gates, walk, trot and canter. She was very bad. My trainer? took it all in stride and was actually laughing at the stubborn, pissy mare. This is just one of the things that makes my trainer awesome. Nothing rattles her.

Video: Jezebel baby buck. They got worse from here! bad!

Circe was next. The pretty redhead hadn’t been ridden in almost 2 weeks because of the weather. She started out good, head tossing was to a minimum, at first. But whenever Michelle put her leg on Circe would do her head tossing thing. Shes not as naturally balanced as Jezebel and even though shes been off track and in theory in work longer shes more of the beginner of the two. Michelle let her throw her head around and encouraged her to just relax into it. Circe kinda sorta got it and she even stretched long and low several times. Shes a very sensitive horse and you have to be light on all your aids. For a horse that hadn’t been ridden for a couple of weeks she did surprisingly well and got a big gold star for the day. Her ride was much sorter then big bossy’s because today she was the good one.

Video: Circe head tossing

This week the weather is supposed to be much better so my trainer is going to try to squeeze some extra days in for me. I’m crossing my fingers cuz both my babies could use the time if she can swing it. I’m also going to ride as much as i can cuz in 10 days they saying it will likely snow again. Ugh!