Very good lesson last night on Lizzie. I’m still making the transition between riding Kip and riding Lizzie, which has been very tough. As Sally put it, with Kip I’m using a lot of strength to take a very large, lazy, uncoordinated young horse and try to collect him and get his hind end under him, but with Lizzie, any heavyhandedness and she’ll go over backwards. We worked on getting her working through and round, getting her listening to me rather than trying to shoot off. A lot of transitions on a circle between straightness, leg-yield, straightness, quarters-in, and back again. Some canter, but not enough to whizz her up. She was lovely. :)
Sally doesn’t think that Lizzie will remain sound without doing either a lot of work on the roads, or turning her out. I’m not anxious to take her out into traffic, but I’m terrified of losing her to an accident in turnout. I think she would be so terrified and stressed that she would colic or do herself an injury. I’ll have to think about that. Last time I tried, even under sedation I couldn’t get her halfway down the lane to the pasture, since she was so terrified knowing where we were going. I wish I had a small paddock that she and another quiet horse or two could go in.
Not sure what to do for her, really…she’s such a puzzle.
Sounds like you’re on the right track with your new horse and getting her to listen. Best of luck to the both of you in forming a happy riding partnership.
Cheers,
Phil
http://horsetrainingsuccess.blogspot.com/
Thanks! Nice site, by the way. :)
horray for the lesson going well :) and yes, that is a HUGE adjustment from Kip to Lizzie, but you sound like smart enough of a rider to realize when you are asking for too much and can school yourself accordingly.
am, however, a bit confused on the soundness. Why will pasture and/or walking the roads make her more sound? this is required?
interesting! I always like things that make me pause a moment and consider.
added it as a feed to LJ –
paid accounts are useful for rss feed creation :D
She thinks that horses that just go from stall to arena and back, and stand for long periods of time, have joint problems because they’re not out moving normally during the major part of the day. When I lived in LA, I never had turnout, but then I did do a lot of riding out, which I really can’t do here. I don’t know…obviously it’s healthier for a horse to be turned out, but she does do a lot of moving around when I have her turned out in the sick paddock or outdoor arena, so I would that that that would be sufficient.
ahhh… okay.
definitely true to a degree, but I suppose it depends on the size of the stall as well as how you ride. I walk and warm up for 15-25 minutes before the ride, plus cool down time. Having seen horses who get ‘turned out’ and just STAND there without moving, I figure riding is often the better choice :P
Course, mine are also in 24×24 pipe pens and wander around and pace (if on stall rest…) so get a bit of movement in there. I know Ally in a 12×24 stall is too small and he didn’t move as much — and was more stiff as a result.
I doubt she’s going to break though, but I can see how if you’ve got small stalls she needs that extra ‘moving’ time, somehow.
You don’t know HOW much I miss American-style stalls with pipe runs. The Victorian brick stables here are beautiful, but a lot of the horses have respiratory problems, and I’ve never seen a pipe run here. Of course, miles of pasture are VERY nice, so it’s a tradeoff. Green pasture is a bit expensive to maintain in SoCal. ;)