A chilled Filly

Friday 29 August 2014

Riding Bonitao in the big field

I've taken a break from working in the school. I think we both needed time away from the place. I've been on standby for work as well which means I can only ride in the evening after my standby has ended. So we have been going to the big field on the farm for the last two evenings to get some exercise.

The first trip to the field was a little eventful just getting there. As we came past the row of horse trailers Bonitao got really worried. He actually tried to bolt past them and I had to bend him to a halt. No big drama but a little unexpected. So we played with the trailers for a while, just doing the ridden squeeze pattern until he was confidently eating grass right next to them.
The first day in the field was pretty good. He had highish energy levels, the forwards walk was very forwards. But we just did a lap at walk, another at trot and a last one at canter. We through in the odd refuelling stop to take on some grass from time to time.
The lap at canter was a little tricky. He wanted to really tank off, so we just rode circles until he relaxed and then carried on our way.

Yesterdays field trip was more exciting. He was fine going to the field, the trailers holding no worries for him other than a slightly suspicious glance. The first lap at walk went well until we got to the far hedge. He's always had a problem with this hedge. I have no idea why, and I doubt we can ever really know what worries a horse about any situation, we can just have what are usually unhelpful theories. Unhelpful in that we then become anxious in a similar situation and transmit that to the horse when otherwise they would have been fine !
But he was worried and started spooking and prancing all the way along the hedge. This was not desired behaviour. But then the oft repeated phrase of James Roberts came to mind. "Get them thinking to their feet". We started doing all sorts of patterns. Figure 8, sideways, direct rein, indirect rein, back up etc etc. I tried to ride exactly the same as I would in the school in a normal schooling situation. I would not allow any heaviness on the bosal. If he pushed into it then light bumps until he softened and then release. We kept this up for a good twenty minutes. Everytime he relaxed he got rewarded by eating grass. With tenseness came more patterns. Eventually he was relaxed enough to walk a straight line along the hedge line.

In a way this energy was a gift. We achieved some incredible yields. Sideways had impulsion as did the direct reins. So rather than just seeing the negative of the situation I tried to focus on the positive and get some schooling achieved that would actually been harder in the school.
We'll keep going to the field for a while, both to use this energy and to try and get him more confident in the environment.

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