I had been thinking for months that I would get it out, and Fiona and I would finally ride through it and THEN I would throw it away for good. Well I skipped the riding through it part, not because I was scared of it..but because I wasn't. I knew we could do it, without any doubt, it was no longer a challenge. However, that's not the REAL reason why I got rid of it. The real reason is much more important.
First some background: There's been a very looooong phase of my life with Fiona that has been exclusively dedicated to sacking out. This was a necessary phase! I was green, she was green, we had plenty of black and blue (ala, green on green means black and blue). So it was critical that we go through the following steps OVER and OVER:
1) Horse gets scared
2) Owner gets scared
3) Owner calms down
4) Owner gives better direction to the horse
5) Horse calms down
In order to trigger this set of events, we had to find a LOT of things that Fiona reacted to in a negative way. However, I think we've reached a point where we need to move on. I will never be able to 100% guarantee that Fiona won't react to things out in the world. I mean the odds are pretty good she is going to freak over a lot of stuff, but she's learned to look to me and follow my lead when that happens. That's the best I can ask for, so it's time to do something new.
I need to focus on putting her to work and I need to continue to improve my riding abilities. So, the scary white tarp has gone to the big dumpster in the sky, and we are working on 2 new directions going forward. Classical dressage training and horseback archery, yes seriously.
Since archery takes about a $1000 investment to get started, between bow, arrows, targets , etc. we are more focused on dressage at the moment. I love dressage more than I ever though I would. I am an engineer and it is pretty much all geometry, so why I am surprised that I love it..I am not sure.
Essays have been written on dressage, but here are the basics. The horse and rider ride patterns on a court that is typically 60 meters by 20 meters. The court has letter markers to help the rider guide the horse through the pattern in various gaits. In competition, the horse and rider are judged on, things like collection, impulsion and how calm and relaxed the horse is during all the movements. I promise it is much more exciting than it sounds and I love it!
Here's an overhead view of a typical court:
I am going to start work on my first tests in earnest this summer. The hope is that we could compete in the fall of 2016, but we'll see. No pressure.
Now, on to the other HUGE news from earlier this year! We trailed out and rode away from the stable property!!! It was amazing. My trainer set up a scenario that was super safe for both of us. It was a small riding practice at a friends house, which is completely fenced, so no run away horse mess like the last time.
Fiona was a complete and total rockstar. She hopped in the trailer in under a minute, she rode quietly. She walked all around the property and never even really spooked at anything. She wasn't crazy about the goats moving around on the other side of a fence, but she didn't do anything even close to crazy. Here we are during our walk around the property.
Then we went away from the other horses to tack up and she didn't like that AT ALL. I took it in stride though, the beauty of all of those hours of groundwork was I KNEW why she was upset and I knew the minute we got back to the other horses, she would settle right down..and she did.
Here we are riding around
It was absolutely amazing. Total. Rockstar! I was VERY worried about getting her back home. My nightmare of all nightmares is to get stuck somewhere with her because she won't load in the trailer. At least this was a place she could stay overnight safely if it didn't workout, but I'll be damned if she didn't get right in the trailer. She gave one token show of resistance by pulling her head back against the lead rope, then jumped right in. She never even stepped backwards or to the side.
I can't wait to see what else we can accomplish this year. I am very excited about it.
