Droopy Lip Club — Official Member!
Not too much to report since my last lesson on Nay. We haven’t managed to fit in another lesson as my trainer has been at horse shows (though she had offered us a lesson New Year’s Day while we were out riding, but I just wasn’t up to it and just wanted to…ride around) the last couple of weekends. Hopefully she’ll be home Saturday. But, we’ve hauled out several more times and are making… something.
Yes, something.
I won’t say progress, because, honestly, I have no idea what we’re are doing these days!
But, now, a MONTH into our relationship, Nay Nay and I have accomplished the following:
- 3 lessons
- 8 (?) trips off the property
- 2 rides without lunging first
- 3 times mounting without assistance
- Trotting on a loose rein
- Cantering on a loose rein
- Trotting over poles
- 2 solo hauls
- 1 solo ride
Now, it’s not always successful and sometimes somethings and some days are more successful than others. And lately I’ve been running into… trouble. After all, I’m riding a green horse, of course I’m going to run into trouble.
Also a member of the gross horse club!
So, my routine in this. I get on, we walk around. I usually try and wobble all round the saddle and get Nayners used to me bobbling around, because, if not now, then when? When we’re all good and relaxed (which for him is immediately, but for me, after we walk around for awhile and explore), we trot.
Handsome horse club as well!
Trot wise? Nay gets to pick the pace in the beginning. He gets to trot as slow or not fast as he wants. Because, fast is not in his vocabulary. We do circles and explore, much like at the walk, constantly taking different paths as well as taking full turns around the arena. Eventually, I also add leg, and do ask for a little more trot because slow and lazy is fine, but a little energy isn’t terrible too. We stay in not fast land because… that’s where we live. Direction changes exist too and if a pole is out, we do that too. Or if I set one out, we go over that (note: he has NO ISSUES with me holding him AND picking up a pole and moving it, even if I accidentally hit him with it.).
Cute horse club member too
Walk break. At some point during the trot, he does get lazy so squeezing is added and we do a tiny bit more to prove that we can before the walk. Endurance is what we are working towards.
After our reserves are built up, it’s canter time. This is when the problems arise. We start with the left lead because it’s the easy lead. Except, while I can pick it up and we canter a lovely canter, I CAN’T KEEP MY HORSE CANTERING. Sometimes I can canter around the corner, sometimes 2/3 around the ring, sometimes we break in the corner and get the canter again down the side.
The right lead? OMG. It’s even worse. If I’m lucky, we pick it up for the side, and then collapse and die. No energy left.
Quiet enough for this now!
I’ve learned the following: I can kick my horse like he’s a big old shetland pony. He doesn’t care. He just sighs and walks forward.
So yeah. I have a problem.
So I’m back to only cantering long sides for the right lead because I fear I’ve screwed him up.
What the heck people?
I so desperately need a lesson…
Three Chestnuts 
I run into the same with Shiny. And then after she fell down, I got kinda panicky about it. I’m hoping the break for her foot to heal will erase the issue? Lol. Probably not. But honestly, I kind of prefer they be lazy and break to running away and bucking. So there’s that at least?
I’ll take lazy any day! He was SO ANXIOUS in the beginning. And, when I tried him, he was fast until he realized I wanted him to go slower (well, they also wanted him to trot a lot slower). But, the other thing? He was ZERO endurance so we trotted (even trying him out) and by the end, he got tired and then it was all gone… So, I THINK it’ll get better once he figures out that yes, I do need to get fitter. But damn horse, you aren’t THAT out of shape, you aren’t breathing hard. You can keep on trotting. But, he sucked on the track so why shouldn’t he be lazy now? Haha. He’ll get there. Lesson this weekend. We’ll get our butts in gear and get more homework! I do think though that this horse is going to be a crop and spur horse… He aims to please and wants to be good, but he’s is so freaking lazy and doesn’t care at all if I kick him… What did I get myself into? I say this with love! I am going to have iron legs thanks to him!
So glad you are getting him out and doing things with him! No matter the progress this is amazing and wonderful right?? And I LOVE that he is lazy because maybe one day i will brave enough to try him out 😉 HA HA HA
He is really a good egg. You will figure it all out. We just finally started able to canter all the way around the ring lately with Remus and he is going on 17. Sheesh….in the field he can canter all day LOL
and again i would rather have this than the opposite as Stacie said 😉 is that saddle working okay??
Oh I’d much rather have slow, lazy than the opposite, that’s for sure!!!! He’s definitely turning out to be a good egg! I can’t wait to expose him to as much as possible, just because. The more he sees, the better. Have trailer, will travel, even if it’s not the best trailer for him right now.
As for the saddle, it’s… not great. Definitely better than my other, but… It’s throwing me in an unfortunate position that’s not helping either of us and I’m thinking that this is actually 1/2 of our canter issue. I cannot stay back AT ALL with it and it’s just tossing me forward. But, there’s not enough clearance for me to try and shim the front.
I need to dig mine out then..and clean it up. I am planning on driving to dad’s later this month so may be able to just bring it with me and figure out a way to get it to you! And i have a trailer for sale 🙂 kind of HAHAHHA
Thanks! We can figure out something… I’m sure your trailer, while perfect, is out of my budget… And is in TN…
It sounds like you two are figuring each other out more and more with each ride. Its hard in the “getting to know you phase” plus he is green too. He has a good head on him though and being lazy is a good thing in the beginning
It sounds like you guys are getting used to each other :). It sounds like you two are still having a good time together tho!
If fitness is a problem, you can try lunging. We had to do that with Whisper. She’s a horse that you can’t drill, but she wasn’t fit enough to keep cantering and hold the correct posture. So I got to where I couldn’t really get her as fit as I wanted under saddle. So we started lunging her, and this helped her stretch out, and I could get her to canter faster (ie not western pleasure speed lol) and for longer periods while lunging. Perhaps you could do this with him? Targeted lunging days of cantering to bolster his fitness?