Thursday 8 October 2009

You are kidding right?

It was raining when I went to catch Grace. She ignored her head collar and walked in glued to my shoulder. I don't think I could have left her behind if I'd tried.

Grace has had a few days off (ok nearly a fortnight) I blame work but in truth I'm just disorganised. Did get all four feet roughed out though which took several goes.

Oddly the recent rain has galvanised me into action and this morning Grace had her first 'work' session for a while. It was fun and funny. Sorry no pictures - I'll try and get some later.

Grace has been developing her heel first landing and I thought I'd see how she went on a softer surface. Up to this point soft arena type surfaces have not been good. This morning was different and I felt confident enough to ask for a bit of work rather than just mooching about.

Well I didn't need to anyway - a mare on box rest decided to start 'shouting' and Grace decided she really needed to see if she could escape from the arena (for rescue purposes?).

Well I said 'no' and the look on her face - she should have been a biped in red wellies with bows in her hair. She really thought that if she squeaked a bit and stomped she would get what she wanted. Sorry Grace, but compared to some of the efforts I've seen yours are pathetic. Not that I want Grace to learn anything more dramatic.

I didn't have to 'do' anything other than insist that she continue to move around the arena edge in the direction of my choice. And it really didn't take any effort, just a little squaring of the shoulders and 'the look'.

Grace is a good girl, she soon settled into her work and did some lovely trot, relaxed and as soon as I let her off the track she came in for some in-hand work. We did a little 'step over' practice and that went well so I rewarded her and turned her out.

No comments:

Post a Comment