Today we went for a walk

So we did another lunge lesson today, she responds ok enough, but i'd like the response to be a bit quicker. She only obeys the commands about 50-60% of the time. Which is a lot better than when I first started and she didnt listen to practically anything. She acts a bit frantic here and there, but for the most part has a pretty calm walk and trot. She did follow me around afterwards like she used to before we moved up here, so that is good. A step forward to being readjusted :).

We took a walk at the end of it, basically she will stop when I stop, turn when I turn, etc. If I ask her to back up a couple of steps she will do that too. So we shall see what tomorrow brings.

Rain

So today I lunged Miss Jonza before riding her. She was still being a bit of a lunatic. Running around and galloping barely being able to stay in a circle. I finally got her to calm down and trot NICELY and was doing well. So I decided it was time to get on her. I got on and she was doing pretty good for a couple of minutes, she was walking and trotting pretty calmly, then she started speeding up and throwing her head around. So I decided to work on walk/halt again as she was starting to act up. She absolutely did NOT want to halt, she'd stop for barely a second and expect to be able to move on, when I insisted that she halt until she was calm, she would start walking sideways, foreward, backwards, and spinning so she could keep moving. Did I mention it was RAINING the whole time. After a long time of trying to get her to calm down, and being completely soaked, I managed to get her to stop moving for a few seconds, and figured it was a day.

I hope tomorrow is better :( She is new at being ridden, and I understand that....she doesnt know very much...but I don't believe walking and halting is that hard of a concept, or even trotting calmly...I mean she IS a trotter! C'est la vie

Twit

So I worked with Miss Jonza today, and she was a complete twit. Throwing her head around because of the *flies* although taking up the *flies* didnt seem to bother her, and in the field these same *flies* werent a nuisance. Interesting how that is huh! She kept running sideways to get away from my leg, hopping and doing little bucks here and there. All because she didn't want to do anything....I'm sure she wanted to be back on the nice green grasses. It took about 45min to an hour to get her just to have her EAR listen to me, She still was prancing around like a princess and wanting to go go go. Head way up in the air, and just being a total twit. We got in maybe 1 minute of *good* listening and bending at the walk, and we were done.

So tomorrow I am going to lunge her for a good while and then get on and do our walk/halt transitions until she is listening and moving nicely...then see if she can trot. Today it was impossible. She could barely contain herself and listen at the walk, much less the trot. I hate it when she is like this mainly for the fact that its at times like this that she tends to smack her hind ankles together, and step all over her front heels with the back, and she trips over herself and everything around! The ground is as flat as it can be without being manmade flat! (Which I will be working on as soon as the tractor is up and running) when she's paying attention to me and what we are doing she doesnt hit herself nearly as much.

But how do you talk reason to a horse? "Miss Jonza...if you just pay attention and stop being a twit you wont trip all over yourself and hurt feet and ankles. Ok mum I'll try that next time ;)." HA yeah right!

So we shall see how tomorrow goes :) Hopefully the rain will clear off in the morning like they are saying its supposed to.

temp pastures

And the work resumes

So today I took Jonza out and did some lungeline work. I have replacement cheekpieces on order, so unfortunately until then I have to wait until they arrive before we can do any riding. Lungework was decent. She obviously is not up to par with lunging, but she'll learn. Basically I worked on walk/trot transitions, although she doesnt quite *get* it yet. She did finally settle down into the trot and looked gorgeous....

When we tried to change directions she acted like it was a completely foreign concept, and I know its not. So finally she understood we were going the OTHER way. So I think she did well. Tomorrow we shall see if she remembers anything from today.

They've ARRIVED!!!!

Finally, after the two weeks of waiting they have arrived!!!! I'm so happy they are here, I just have to wait for Jonza's cheek pieces to come in for her bridle and I can start working with her again :). I'm super psyched. I love having the horses around. Tommorrow I'll do some inhand stuff with her, make her realize that I'm still the boss. Appearantly she's regressed a bit due to not being handled for the last two weeks. She seems the same to me, but we shall see once i start working with her again. Dew can go with me and take Chief. I'm not sure how he is for *walks* but we shall see. Yeah for horses! Gives me something to do in the middle of no-where.

Soon....

Jonza and Cheif will be here soon :) Hopefully on Monday as long as Jaye thinks it will work for her :). The fencing is all done except for a few minor touches. ie: the fence charger needs to be mounted, but thats it :) I do have to buy another water bucket, and a couple feed buckets, and pick up hay from the hay guy. But really thats not much :) easily done for me this weekend.

I can't wait for her to get here. I hope she becomes friends with Cheif soon enough, and I can't wait to really start working on our training together.

Till she's here: