{"id":6777,"date":"2012-08-03T04:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/?p=6777"},"modified":"2012-08-01T23:20:43","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T05:20:43","slug":"thirty-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2012\/08\/03\/thirty-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirty Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patty Wilber<\/em><\/p>\n

I like to start young horses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sort of.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’d actually like to start at about ride five<\/strong>, after the initial drama (if any) is over.<\/p>\n

It usually takes some ground work<\/strong> (five to 10 days) to get to know a horse when it first arrives.\u00a0 This depends, of course on myriad factors including the horse’s temperment and previous knowledge base.<\/p>\n

I like them to<\/strong> lead from both sides, stop and back when I do, move hip and shoulder, lunge (go around me in circles), go sideways,\u00a0wear a saddle then wear a saddle with stuff tied on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Buckshot was kind of skittish at this point in his training, but he had no problems with this tarp or butt rope!<\/p><\/div>\n

Sometimes the trainees get help from the jealous.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

May says: "i love this tarp!"<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>“…but now i need to disrobe!”<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>

Penny (the jealous) says," i'll take that!"<\/p><\/div>\n

I don’t really like<\/strong> the first time up in the saddle.\u00a0 Too much potential energy!<\/p>\n

To decrease that risk,<\/strong> I do take time to make sure flapping stirrups, weight in the\u00a0 stirrups, objects above the horse (like me) don’t cause stress and the horse can stand still for all of that.\u00a0\u00a0It took Penny three days to decide she could stand still–not so much because she was nervous–more because she had Her Own Ideas.<\/p>\n

Then:<\/strong> ease into the saddle from one side and\u00a0ease off the other. Then ease on and sit there.<\/p>\n

Tabooli, who was four and still a stallion,<\/strong> felt as though he was going to splinter into pieces when my butt graced the saddle.\u00a0 I got off fast.\u00a0 I think that scared him more than me being on top.\u00a0 (Learned later he’d bucked off someone already….ahem…would have liked that info up front!)<\/p>\n

Penny, who was two,<\/strong> couldn’t have cared less.<\/p>\n

Querido, who was three,<\/strong> stood still as a statue.\u00a0 Given that he is, shall we say, very “dynamic”, I was thrilled.<\/p>\n

The next step<\/strong> is to ask them to bend their heads left or right, and then\u00a0move a hind foot.\u00a0 Simple for most–they’ve already learned this in their ground work.<\/p>\n

For T,\u00a0<\/strong> since he’d gotten so tense when I’d first stepped up, I had a handler on the ground holding his lead rope to both reassure the horse and help control him in case of implosion (i.e. help reassure the rider).\u00a0 He was at ease in two rides.<\/p>\n

Penny: couldn’t have cared less.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Queri stood stock still for mounting<\/strong> so I was confident he’d handle this.\u00a0 Turns out he wasn’t still.\u00a0 He was frozen.\u00a0 When the ice cracked, he melted.\u00a0 We careened ’round the round pen, he being oblivious to my attempts to talk him down.<\/p>\n

Time seemed to get slow,<\/strong> and\u00a0 I wondered, as the world blurred by, how I would ever get off\u00a0THIS merry go round.\u00a0 He wasn’t bucking but he wasn’t\u00a0“there” either.\u00a0 He’d gone bye bye.<\/p>\n

But lo,<\/strong> within less than two circuits (see I told you time slowed down–seemed like I had forever to think up there), he faced the fence and re-froze.<\/p>\n

So, should I swing off?\u00a0 Or will he shatter?\u00a0<\/strong> Can’t sit\u00a0all day, so I got off.\u00a0 He held still.<\/p>\n

We talked.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I remounted, BUT<\/strong> I did not ask him to move\u00a0 so much as a hair!\u00a0 For the next 10+ rides, his mom, Carolyn, reassured him on the ground while I started off playing passenger (Just sitting up here!\u00a0 Don’t mind me!).<\/p>\n

Gradually,<\/strong> I directed more and she did less, until he was on his own!<\/p>\n

At\u00a023 rides he could do this:<\/a> <\/strong>(click link or cut and paste?)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

At 34:<\/strong><\/a> (click link 0r cut and paste?)<\/p>\n