Although today's ride wasn't terrible, or a complete failure, it definitely wasn't one of our better ones. Of course, it all goes back to being my fault, because you can never blame the horse.
Even though, technically, we got pretty far from the house, it wasn't under the best of circumstances. I was pushing her onwards and was NOT listening. I had "accidentally" made it a goal to get to a certain spot down the road, and she was not ready. It was too big a step after yesterday's success, and I didn't spend enough time getting her prepared on the ground.
Maybe I can blame a tiny bit of it on her much more dominant attitude today? No, better not....
I had to get off at one point on the way back because I wasn't feeling very safe. She ran quite a few circles before calming down enough so that I could get back on her. We finally got to a fairly good point that I was (mostly) happy with and I got off to walk her down the driveway because my lower back and hips just aren't used to that huge of a swing - almost six inches at the walk. Ouch.
I also wasn't very pleased with her sweat pattern after I unsaddled her. It wasn't completely even, and she had a lot of ruffled hair, but that is all my fault too, from my bad riding habits that I'm trying to break. Overall, not too bad today, just a little disappointing after yesterday. I'm not sure yet about tomorrow. I might skip riding altogether, or just do a bit of position work for myself. Either way, I plan to do some more groundwork and get her thinking some more.
Blog Challenge - Day 3 - What do your family and friends think about horses and riding?
Overall, my family is very supportive. Not that they help me out a lot, but they take care of my ponies when I'm away and are happy for my successes. They may think I'm crazy for the amount of money and time I put into them, but its okay. My friends at school all think its rather cool and neat that I own horses and ride "all the time" and my two closest friends are horse-owners themselves, so that is pretty self-explanatory. <wink>
Always feel like it's better to get off when you feel unsafe. I've definitely been in that situation before!
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely better to get off. From my experience, once you feel unsafe and tense up, you'll only end up arguing with the horse, and that usually does not end well!
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