Woodsmith Farm

Odessa is home from 45d at an Eventing barn where she was away from Darwin and getting some riding experience.  She will continue her training at Woodsmith Farm with a lot of ground work in patience, standing and bending. 

I wanted to get a ride in on Odessa on Saturday to see how she would be for a possible trail ride in Cumberland Gap, TN.  After I pulled her out of the field, Dan was screaming and running the fence line adding tension and drama to the situation and she was tense and not standing in the cross ties, so I worked with her to get her attention on me and to keep her feet still.  She calmed down after 15 minutes or so and the grooming and saddling was uneventful.  I walked her around the arena and did some work asking her to lower her head with pressure and then worked on bending her head from side to side and moving her hind end around, again all of this was so she would focus on me instead of Dan.  She picked up what I wanted very quickly. 

She moved around a bit when I went to mount so we worked on that a bit and she stood quietly as I got on, but within a couple of seconds she wanted to walk off...major pet peeve.  I didn't push the issue because I know her tendency is to get light on her front end if she feels boxed in, so we walked off.  We walked a couple of times around the arena both directions before asking for a trot.  I am so out of shape that riding a trot with as much suspension as hers is very tough for me, but I managed and we did some transitions, etc., then I asked her to stand.  After a second or two, she started to walk off and I asked her quietly to stop and she got frazzled and did a little rear and started leaping forward.  I managed to stay on but I hate episodes like that so we are going back to the drawing board and I started working on bending and 1 rein stops.  The only thing I asked the trainer to make sure she did was stand quietly, even if that was the only thing she did with her.  I really don't get why people don't do the ground home work.  It makes things so much easier.  So after the bending and stops we worked on straight halts for 2 seconds, then 3, etc.  She was much more relaxed after the bending work that she would then stand for 10 or so seconds.  I didn't push it any longer than that...baby steps.

So we will see if she remembers anything from yesteday when I ride her today.  The trail ride to Cumberland Gap was cancelled do to heavy rain forecasts.