Friday 20 September 2013

Two steps forward, one step back

The gelding and I went out on our first solo outing the other day.

This is HUGE for us. Last Saturday was the first time I had sat on the horse in around a year, and I hated every second of it! I was waiting for him to spook, and he was waiting for something to spook him!

My confidence is in tatters, has been since my accident over 6 years ago, and seems to be getting worse rather than better. I can cope on my mare, she looks after herself, even if she can be a bit of a tramp. Any other horse terrifies me. Unfortunately, the gelding now falls into this category.

I got a friend to come to the yard on Monday to just be there at talk to me while I rode, huge difference, felt a little bit more in control.

Roll on Wednesday and we head out in the trailer to a local show centre to have a lesson. I was apprehensive, but more comfortable knowing a competent instructor was there. The gelding was on his toes and my initial reaction to seeing him come off the trailer was "Oh Shit, I'm going to die" for he had grown several hands.

But, he was good as gold and tried so hard. We only walked and trotted but I felt we achieved so much.

Today I was really looking forward to riding him. He obviously didn't share my enthusiasm, as he had a right little foot stomping tantrum. I had been on him for about 10mins, doing some big loops in walk and just starting to do some trot, when we had a couple of mini spooks. I ignored these and kept quietly on. This is when he decided I was being completely unreasonable and he couldn't possibly trot anymore, so he planted and did his little rears (I say 'rear' but it was the front feet barely leaving the ground) and bunny hops with his back end. He was cross! Unfortunately he did a jink sideways and I bent my little finger back - ouch!

I carried on until he was doing as I asked, then got off and put him on the lunge for five minutes at the end of the school that he was fussing about - surprise, surprise, the monster had gone!

Letting him off a little today seemed like the best option, he probably is still feeling a bit stiff from our lesson and the travelling, and making him very cross would have been counter productive.

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