Back to Business

I got to the barn yesterday and my pony's mane and tail had been trimmed.  Looks like we're back on the radar after taking a winter off and growing out her mane.  I think my trainer got to the point where she couldn't stand it.  I kind of miss the long Arab mane, but it does get less in the way when we're jumping.

I got the whole scoop on the woman who was thrown on Sunday.  There's always more to the story.  This story is a good reason why if you have your horse in training you need to communicate with your trainer.  Lots of people feel that because it's 'their horse' that they should be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want.  Though they do have that 'right', it's not always the best idea.  Sunday's fiasco is a great example of why.

I don't want to get into too many details or it just turns into petty gossip, but basically the owner had told trainers that after Wednesday she would not be riding for 30 days due to her surgery.  So trainers began  pushing horse out of his comfort zone.  Which resulted in some baby behavior attitude stuff (bronco bucking).  Trainers then left for show for the weekend and were unaware that owner was going to ride.  Had owner talked to trainers, they would have said "do not ride your pony until we have resolved this issue".  But that obviously didn't happen and things didn't go well.  So that's that.

I felt pretty nervous before my lesson.  Every time Tessa shook her head, my brain went back to that mustang shaking his head before pile driving his owner.  But Laura just pushed me forward and we worked through it.  She said we had the best forward trot she'd ever seen for us.  Yeah!  Progress!

Then we jumped and cantered and jumped.  We mostly worked on me not throwing myself over the jumps.  We found out that this is especially evident the first time I jump a new fence.  It's like I think I need to jump it first for the both of us.  Which usually results in me launching in front of the saddle and Tessa lurching over it and shaking her head at me.

After my lesson, since I was the only one riding in it that night, I untacked Tessa in the arena and helped put jumps away.  Tessa was like a big Golden Retriever, following us around while we moved poles and jump standards.  At one point she put her head on my shoulder and sighed.  I gave her a big hug and took her out to eat grass after our lesson.

My brain is still frustratingly afraid, but at least my body is starting to respond and we're getting more forward.  Also, I did yoga and lesson on same day again and I feel like I'm 90 years old today.  Ouch!