![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseThis was a big week for the Divine Miss E. No, we haven't sat on her yet. But she made serious strides toward being ready for it.
Monday was challenging. The wind was ferocious. She was out of her head with hormones.
Bear in mind, we have not been able to get this mare to show heat signs. She has normal structures but nothing seems to have gone on in them. A year and a half as Pooka's pasture buddy resulted in nothing, and he never appears to have bred her.
This year, she's finally unblocked whatever was blocked. Our first session with her had its wild moments, and she seemed Very interested in the stallion.
Monday, she was exactly the same way. I checked the calendar. 21 days. Yep, Miss Late Bloomer is finally blooming in that direction.
We could feel the sparks coming off her during her grooming. She was calm, comfortable with the routine, but there was a definite undertone. We decided not to saddle her, but to do groundwork and obedience work instead, and free-longe her if she was inclined. J started off--we alternate so she gets used to the idea of working with multiple people--and did a little leading work, but she was not cooperative. As in, levades and sudden eruptions. I instructed J to turn her loose and see if we could free-longe.
None too soon, either. Directly in front of J, Ephiny went UP. Full vertical courbette with three feet of air.
In case you wondered what Ephiny's Air is...
Then she took off toward the stallion stall for a tete-a-tete with Pooka. Which I persuaded her was not on--she argued, but I had a longe whip. She blasted off.
Lather, rinse, repeat. With Airs. And lots of hightailing and snorting.
But as she went on, she got calmer. She got the idea that she should focus on me and not on Pooka (who was very good; he would have obliged if she had insisted, but he didn't get too upset when I said no). She started free-longeing more quietly. Then she came up to us and asked what we wanted. And finally she stood quietly while we petted her and told her how wonderful she was.
It may not have looked like much. She was a stinker, we got her to calm down, she ended up cooperating. But for this horse, who at eight-next-week is having her first experience of real hormones, and who has been an extreme late bloomer in most other respects as well, this is huge. We could see the pennies dropping and the brain cells popping. She figured out something crucial about how this working thing works.
On Wednesday, after a day to process, she got the saddle and the cavesson, and the usual routine--with an addition. I led her from the grooming area to the mounting block and messed with her: stood on the block, pulled on the stirrups, moved the saddle on her back. She didn't turn a hair.
And then we did our longeing routine with me in the middle and J on the lead. After a couple of circles, J let go and we did the real-longeing thing. Ephiny wanted to fall to the inside, which took some maneuvering, and she trotted a bit on her own. Not too bad at all, and she was quiet and attentive.
And that was a good session in a routine-progress sort of way.
Yesterday, while J was off riding in a show (she won one class with a great score; I didn't see how she did in the other one, but she looked good and her trainer's horse is adorable), I threw the cavesson on Ephiny and longed her in the middle of the herd.
WIKTORY! Good, fairly symmetrical circles in walk both directions, and a nice, fairly balanced trot, ditto. She gets it. She's figured it out. She can longe. She got huge praise, hugs and cookies. Then she went off and was all thinking for a long, long time.
Baby girl is finally growing up.
And in Tia news, because Tia will not let big sister outshine her, while I rode Capria, Tia mirrored us exactly through a longish sequence of figures in both walk and trot, moving to voice and whip instructions (whip touching shoulder or pointing the direction to turn) as well as body language from me as well as Capria. She actually cantered up to us when we started, and attached herself to Capria's inside. Capria didn't mind a bit. Capria is good with this pas-de-deux thing. It's in the genes.
Though when Camilla decided to make it a pas de trois, Tia's baby brain got a little fizzy and she took off at a wild gallop. She's not ready for that yet.
At this rate, I'll end up with a full quadrille. O_o
Monday was challenging. The wind was ferocious. She was out of her head with hormones.
Bear in mind, we have not been able to get this mare to show heat signs. She has normal structures but nothing seems to have gone on in them. A year and a half as Pooka's pasture buddy resulted in nothing, and he never appears to have bred her.
This year, she's finally unblocked whatever was blocked. Our first session with her had its wild moments, and she seemed Very interested in the stallion.
Monday, she was exactly the same way. I checked the calendar. 21 days. Yep, Miss Late Bloomer is finally blooming in that direction.
We could feel the sparks coming off her during her grooming. She was calm, comfortable with the routine, but there was a definite undertone. We decided not to saddle her, but to do groundwork and obedience work instead, and free-longe her if she was inclined. J started off--we alternate so she gets used to the idea of working with multiple people--and did a little leading work, but she was not cooperative. As in, levades and sudden eruptions. I instructed J to turn her loose and see if we could free-longe.
None too soon, either. Directly in front of J, Ephiny went UP. Full vertical courbette with three feet of air.
In case you wondered what Ephiny's Air is...
Then she took off toward the stallion stall for a tete-a-tete with Pooka. Which I persuaded her was not on--she argued, but I had a longe whip. She blasted off.
Lather, rinse, repeat. With Airs. And lots of hightailing and snorting.
But as she went on, she got calmer. She got the idea that she should focus on me and not on Pooka (who was very good; he would have obliged if she had insisted, but he didn't get too upset when I said no). She started free-longeing more quietly. Then she came up to us and asked what we wanted. And finally she stood quietly while we petted her and told her how wonderful she was.
It may not have looked like much. She was a stinker, we got her to calm down, she ended up cooperating. But for this horse, who at eight-next-week is having her first experience of real hormones, and who has been an extreme late bloomer in most other respects as well, this is huge. We could see the pennies dropping and the brain cells popping. She figured out something crucial about how this working thing works.
On Wednesday, after a day to process, she got the saddle and the cavesson, and the usual routine--with an addition. I led her from the grooming area to the mounting block and messed with her: stood on the block, pulled on the stirrups, moved the saddle on her back. She didn't turn a hair.
And then we did our longeing routine with me in the middle and J on the lead. After a couple of circles, J let go and we did the real-longeing thing. Ephiny wanted to fall to the inside, which took some maneuvering, and she trotted a bit on her own. Not too bad at all, and she was quiet and attentive.
And that was a good session in a routine-progress sort of way.
Yesterday, while J was off riding in a show (she won one class with a great score; I didn't see how she did in the other one, but she looked good and her trainer's horse is adorable), I threw the cavesson on Ephiny and longed her in the middle of the herd.
WIKTORY! Good, fairly symmetrical circles in walk both directions, and a nice, fairly balanced trot, ditto. She gets it. She's figured it out. She can longe. She got huge praise, hugs and cookies. Then she went off and was all thinking for a long, long time.
Baby girl is finally growing up.
And in Tia news, because Tia will not let big sister outshine her, while I rode Capria, Tia mirrored us exactly through a longish sequence of figures in both walk and trot, moving to voice and whip instructions (whip touching shoulder or pointing the direction to turn) as well as body language from me as well as Capria. She actually cantered up to us when we started, and attached herself to Capria's inside. Capria didn't mind a bit. Capria is good with this pas-de-deux thing. It's in the genes.
Though when Camilla decided to make it a pas de trois, Tia's baby brain got a little fizzy and she took off at a wild gallop. She's not ready for that yet.
At this rate, I'll end up with a full quadrille. O_o
