Uwe cleared the snow out of the sand ring for riding season which begins in April at Horses of the Sun. The inaugural group lesson of 2014 was on April 6.
Luba has a love/hate relationship with the sand ring. Boogey men (and geldings) live in the far end which borders on the grove (See Safe in the Circle). And we there was still so much snow, we had to ride through the geldings' paddock to get into the sand ring.
I debated about hand walking Luba through the paddock and into the ring, but everyone else was mounted up, so I just rode on in.
Luba was fine. We had an easy first lesson of the season, walk, trot canter (first cantering since January 5, but hey, who's counting?). All the horses had some spring fever, so Sonja told us to ride like we mean it. Ride your horse straight. Ride the top line. Ride into the corners. It is the first ride of the year, so start off the way you mean to continue. Use some energy to go forward and let the rest go.
I got a few bucks in the first canter or two, but nothing that I couldn't handle. And she even managed to pick up her left leads. Bucking in the canter is an old trick. It doesn't scare me anymore, so the novelty soon wore off for Luba and we had a lovely ride.
Next trick - Where's my mother?????!!!? We encountered Charlotte riding Sera leading a group of beginners down the lane way while we were cooling out. Luba screamed out to her mother, who was unimpressed by her grown daughter's lack of composure and barely looked at her, so great was her disdain. I kept calm and carried on and soon the novelty wore off for Luba.
Fast forward to this weekend. I put Luba's Renegades on and we went up and down the driveway ad nauseum. I focused on sitting. Really being connected through my seat. Using my manipura chakra (solar plexus) to rate Luba. Lots of sitting trot. Leg yielding from one side of the road to the other. We had a lovely ride. Luba seemed to appreciate me getting out of her face. Letting the energy move forward and then catch it gently with my hands and give it back softly.
This seems so simple but it is the hardest thing in the world to do when you learned to ride by kicking to make the horse go and pulling on the reins to make the horse stop. And when it happens, it is magical.
Today, Charlotte and I took the mother/daughter into the sand ring for a walk and some quiet time. Sera was with the program, but Luba had other ideas. Acck! The sand ring! OMG shadows! I can't go to the scary corners near the grove! Even using Sera as a shield was not working.
After about a half an hour, I gave up (and I was getting pissed off so my inner Hulk was awakening). Charlotte put Sera away and I grabbed a lunge line and brought Luba back into the sand ring. By this time, I had calmed down. Luba, however, still had a bee in her bonnet.
She started cantering right away and bucked up a storm for what was probably only a few minutes, but which felt much longer. I just let her buck, but kept moving her forward on the lunge line. Soon, she was walking and trotting calm circles in the scary end of the ring and we were walking calmly around the whole school. I got on, and she tried to shy away from the side of the ring. I pretended that I didn't care, sat deep and pushed her forward. Oh, say, it is so much less fun when you don't fight back.
The wonderful sound of one hand clapping, hey Luba?
I put her away and spent the afternoon cleaning and pressure washing the trailer. Then Luba loaded on without any hesitation and started to eat supper.
Hallelujah!
Then suddenly she realized she was on the trailer. She started to tremble and stopped eating. I stayed with her, but left her on for about 10 minutes. Then she calmly unloaded and finished her supper beside the trailer and went for a big drink.
Me too when I got home.
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