Behavior

Showing: 6 - 7 of 7 RESULTS
Behavior Blog

Have a Plan and Be Ready to Trash It

Helena on Siouxsie at Halt
About 90% of the time, the plan I have for Siouxsie on any given day gets trashed in less than 10 minutes in the saddle. That’s cool though, ’cause in the abandoned plan’s place, we work on whatever presents itself that day. It usually turns out pretty well. Today was no different.
What I thought was going to be a simple session of Walk -> Sit -> Post -> Sit -> Walk transitions turned out to be a day of Canter Departs. Who knew?!
Sioux’s head was in the right place for it today, actually. And before we go on adventures off property, I want to make sure I can both ride and rate her canter if it turns into something more racehorse-y.
Anyway, there were a dozen things that we did beautifully today and dozen more that were just wonky. As you can tell from my smile, I enjoyed every single minute of it.  -H
Horse on the cross ties
Behavior Blog

Ulcer Treatment and Return to Work

Siouxsie’s first day back under saddle: My goal was to assess her attitude and anxiety level after 3 weeks into her ulcer treatment.

It went really well.

Since I know her tummy is healing, the teeth grinding (called bruxism) while tacking up is most likely due to residual anxiety. Habit. History.

My plan is to change her experiences under saddle to very easy and pleasant ones. No work other than 10 minutes standing and walking around at her leisure, with me on her back.

I would say that day one was a success! Why? Because she was relaxed, head low, and after our 10 minutes, she stretched out through her back, too. No anxious behaviors while I was up there at all.

She went back a few steps in terms of her stifle strength, but I already know that she builds muscle easily with the right exercises, so I’m not worried about that.

For many riders, sitting on a horse for ten minutes, just poking around the ring isn’t much of a ride, but for me, it was everything today. And for Siouxsie… how awesome that she got to realize that her person, Helena, is actually a pretty nice passenger to have on board.

One day, one ride at a time. ❤️