Lesson, Colic, and Lunging

(And yes, I do believe the correct spelling is "longing" but I just can't get past the phonetics there and will stick with "lunging" until a professional corrects me :) )

Today I had a great lesson with Simon. We had a nice warm-up (and I didn't feel so out of shape!) We started over a small 18' vertical and it always makes me laugh when Simon barely exerts any energy getting over it. You hardly notice him going over the fence at all as he maintains his slow and steady cadence over the tiny fence. So Kim had us move up to a different fence that was a little higher to warm up over. He seemed awake, and so we went down a bending line in 9 strides the first time (should have been 8, of course!) He just didn't have enough energy into the first fence to get it (and I thought I counted 10 strides, but Kim said it was 9 and I'd rather believe her! :) ) The next time over no trouble at all - easy 8 strides, nice spots, and then around the corner to a wall on the diagonal. We did that a couple of times to perfection, then trotted in and cantered out a 5 line on a different diagonal. The first fence was about 2'3" and the second looked almost 2'9", so I get excited about those. (The closer I get to 3' the more excited/nervous I get). We did it easily, and around the corner to the left over another outside line that was an easy 5. We got it right the first time, and then the second we added - my fault. I didn't keep my leg on him the whole time. Although, theoretically, he probably could have taken off extra far away, but I'm so glad Simon picks the safe route more than not. We put it all together and had a beautiful ride and quit on that. It really felt so good to be riding so well! :)

Of course, then I took Simon on our normal after-lesson stroll and poop (he poops, not me, and I can almost plant a bullseye on the ground to tell you right where he'll stop and lift his tail). He wanted to turn around quicker than usual, and when I dismounted he still seemed out of breath - which seemed abnormal to me. He normally cools out easily. Watching him, his ears looked like he was uncomfortable, and then I knew for sure something was wrong when I was grooming him and he had no interest in the treats. Simon had a mild colic going on. We didn't over work him at all - everything else about the ride was normal. But he just suddenly wasn't quite right. His respiration stayed up, and he seemed not as bright, so I went back to the ring and got Kim. We put him in his stall/run to see what he would do, and he started pawing and wanted to lay down, so Simon got a shot of banamine (IV) which worked its miracle - he relaxed almost immediately after the shot and I watched him for at least 30 minutes and he just relaxed in his run, snoozing, in no discomfort anymore. They have people there all day to keep their eyes on him, so I'm sure he'll be fine.

Something I realized this morning is that I am a little frustrated that I am riding Simon more often than Rocky it seems.... ooops! I absolutely love riding Simon, but he is not my horse - and my long term goal is to get Rocky to a horse show. It is all pleasure riding Simon, but I really want to get Rocky going! If I am going to spend money to go to a horse show, I want it to be for one of my horses. Of course, I'm sure you'll see me riding Simon in another show this year, but I'm not going to go to the expensive shows to do that.

My lack of riding Rocky has been due to doing more family stuff on the weekends, and the weather has been bad, and I don't feel comfortable riding while I'm alone with the kids. So I'm going to make it my goal to trailer Rocky to Kim's for my lesson next time, and hopefully regularly.

Today, I decided that I wouldn't feel comfortable riding Rocky while alone with the kids, but I could lunge him and not risk falling, and that only takes a few minutes in comparison. So tonight, I lunged Rocky for about 10-15 minutes - we walked and trotted both directions and then cantered a few times. I'm definitely agreeing with Kim that Rocky should be quiet at the canter transitions on the lunge line before I try it in the saddle. He has quite the buck/kick on him. But it is not every time he canters. I'm beginning to wonder if it is frustration to being out of shape (regular lunging will fix that) or a little in coordination on a circle (regular lunging will fix that) or getting the wrong lead and not liking changing (regular lunging will fix that). Hmmmm... there seems to be a theme here. :) As I was watching him tonight, I know that he really needs to be going into the canter without bucking before I take him over to Kim's. You go over there and he's going to be "up" just because we're in a new place. Add that to what he's already doing, and, well, I might as well plan on landing on my butt. But the experience of going to a new place and just being there and working at the walk and trot is a great one - but I don't need someone giving me a lesson to do that. I want help with starting him over fences, and any ideas Kim might have about the canter, but I still think regular lunging is the answer - get him to where he doesn't care about going into the canter transition and then move from there. We ended tonight with two quiet canter transitions, one each direction on the correct lead, and I think that's a good place to start.

Somewhere along the line, someone taught me to make a horse work harder if they misbehaved and bucked at the canter - but I think that line of thinking has backfired a bit with Rocky (I have done that in the past - made him go faster/work harder after bucking). I want him to be calm, and he definitely gets excited about cantering. I probably have something to do with that.

After caring for several timid foster horses, I've learned to stay calm no matter what happens. I've finally reached a point where it's much more natural for me to stay calm when working with horses - and I can thank my foster horses for that. Calmness endears trust. I look back and think of so many times where I got frustrated with a horse and reacted without calmness - and am so glad I have finally learned that getting frustrated with a horse solves absolutely nothing. Even with daily chores - and turning a horse out. Say one of them (aka Charlie) decides to come back into the barn after letting everyone out before I've managed to close the barn doors. If I get frustrated - she gets scared and is likely to bowl me over getting away from me. If I stay calm and lackadaisically walk up to her and put a lead over her neck - she stays calm, and we quietly walk out of the barn, no harm done.

So, my goal going forward is to stay calm and quiet no matter what Rocky does, and quit when we're going into the canter without bucking (which he definitely can do!). Rocky is a smart boy - he'll figure it out!