Earning his keep

Lance and I have another student! (I say 'another' because Stella always stands at her paddock railing watching whenever I ride Lance in the arena; I think horses can learn by watching others being worked.) Recently a friend, now in Hawaii, asked if I'd be open to giving lessons to a friend of hers. After talking to this friend-of-a-friend I believed Lance and I could help, so we scheduled her first lesson for yesterday.

Yesterday was a washout, weather-wise. We were planning to proceed with the lesson regardless, in the barn if necessary, but lo and behold, it stopped raining while M was here! Other than Lance being extraordinarily sluggish, the lesson went well, and M is coming again next week.

Meanwhile, I've incorporated something new with Stella, thanks to a different friend's suggestion. She has this book,

and suggested I try the 'body wrap' on Stella, texting me photos of the pertinent pages. Below is a photo of her wearing it for the first tine and walking, looking deceptively calm. Trust me; she was anything BUT! I do think, now that I've worked her in it three times, that it is helping her reactivity, which has only gotten worse during this season of limited turn-out. (After this introduction, she has been wearing it under her tail.)

Decades I learned just a little about Linda Tellington-Jones and TTouch, so I looked into the book and ended up ordering my own copy. Once I did that a Kindle version was made available, which I've been reading on my laptop. So much of what she says resonates; the philosophy is so similar to what I've heard from Anna Blake and the exercises remind me of Jec Ballou's. I look forward to furthering my education and my horses' training!

Starting off right

My only tradition for New Year's Day – really, my only firm holiday tradition, period – is starting the new year on the back of a horse. Preferably not just sitting on a horse but going for a ride on my horse, but there have been years that all I could do was sit on my horse in the barn due to weather, or ride someone else's horse. Still, that's better than those few times in the last 40+ years when circumstances preventing me from being astride at all.

Today's weather forecast indicated a dry window in the morning, followed by a sustained soggy spell – as in days of rain. How fortuitous! I saddled up the reliably rideable one first. While Lance and I warmed up in the arena, I shot a little video to share on Instagram/FB,

then we walked down the lane and back.

Next I turned Stella out to stretch her legs, followed by some in-hand work. Since I am ever working on her reactivity, I did half-circles and circles with her while holding the flag, touching her with the flag, and then adding in a new and alarming piece. slipping the flag up under her tail. Down clamped the tail and forward scooted the mare – at first. But slowly and cautiously she accepted this invasion to the point that she kept walking, for which she was praised and rewarded. Then I climbed the arena fence to do half-circles, pet her, and sit on her. It would have been nice to actually ride her around the arena a bit, but she was quite lively when doing the half-circles so that would have been asking for a confidence-ruining wreck.

 So I had a ride and a sit. Carry on, 2021; I've started you out right!