8/22

Riding my wild and crazy horse...oh wait, I mean my fat, lazy horse that just wants to eat. :)  Who can blame her?!  If you put me in a field full of twice baked potatoes I wouldn't want to do anything but stuff my face either! :)

Check out our progress on Parelli Connect!  Lots of updates and photos there too!

(On Line, 90 mins) Had a great time playing the 7 games with more quality on the 12' line, then moved up to the 22' to play again with straighter circles as well as the weave and figure-8 pattern. Had a very nice, relaxing time together. Aspen struggled going to the left on the circle for a bit, not drfting and pulling out but eventually realized that by putting slack in the rope and making a slightly smaller circle she could be more comfortable and then find the release by coming in to me.

(Freestyle, 30 mins) Played with FTR, weave, and figure-8 in the arena. She had lots of pull toward the gates so we tried to find more rest in the middle of the arena. Then went and rode around in the pasture, alternating between grazing and trotting around to random patches of alfalfa. Also ran through the irrigation handline to cool off! :) She was having so much fun she kept refusing to ride back toward her paddock! Flattering, but still would like to see her not brace against me at any point in time.

Woo Hoo to Oh No!

Had so much fun with Aspen today - played with a better quality circle on-line for a while until she really put effort into keeping even slack in the rope all the way around. Started to play at liberty and was having a lot of fun then at one point she ran to the other end of the arena so I put a little pressure on her hips and she spun around and came galloping to me! I dodged left, then right, then left and with each dodge she did flying lead changes anticipating which way I was going. She came right up to me then exuberantly reared up into the air, exactly something you'd see on a movie, it was a beautiful rear, then she touched down and did it again going straight up, up, up and over!! She flipped over and as gracefully as a horse can fell oer backward! She got up and was quite shaken, ran around for a minute then ran back to me, licking, chewing, yawning, shaking her head - just trying to come off all this adrenaline! :( :( I felt SO bad for her! Here she was offering to play with me, becoming confident and enthusiastic, and then she falls over! :( I felt all down her back and her withers, and had her move around and she looks fine but I still feel terrible for her. I didn't know what to do so I took off her bareback pad, brushed her down, then took her out to graze in the big field for a while. I'm sad the moment went so quickly from woo hoo! to oh no! :(