Around and Around We Go

As much as I'd like to pretend that everything is peachy keen and perfect, it has become glaringly obvious to me that new horses do not come without struggles. My struggle with Tim comes in the form of a rather pony like behavior - drop head, spin in circles repeatedly until allowed to return to the herd. SO MUCH FUN. Except when he tries to run us into a trailer. Or a fence. Or a truck. Or another horse. See where I'm going with this? The fact of the matter is that the spinning becomes more and more dangerous every time it happens, yet I have absolutely no effing clue what to do about it. I can sit back and pony club kick him, crack him with the whip, try to turn him around, etc. but we just end up spinning continuously until I get freaked out enough to dismount or someone leads us from the ground. I also don't know him well enough yet to know when it's coming, nor am I brave enough to beat the shit out of him and show him who's boss. This leads me to my questions... have any of you ever dealt with a spinner? How did you handle it when it happened? More importantly, how did you prevent the behavior from recurring? 

The spinning started the first time we hacked out alone at home. He was great, perfect really, until we got to the scary section of the farm near a house that is under construction. Scary noises, spooky corn, new farm - okay, I convinced myself that he was just getting settled and that it wouldn't be a problem again. Then, a few days later as we walked away from the barn towards the jump field, same deal. This time, my trainer saw it and had to lead us to the field because he refused to walk forward. That leads us to yesterday, when we schooled XC for the first time. He was a saint until my trainer told us to warm up and we split off from "the herd." We were calmly trotting around when he suddenly grabbed the bit and dive-bombed for the nearest trailer with a horse tied up. In one of the more embarrassing and scary moments of my life,  we almost spun into the horse and trailer and once again had to be led away by the poor owner of said horse/trailer.

Now, I am fairly certain that all of this originated in insecurity in me as a leader, barn sourness, and herd boundedness (?). Limerick had his barn sour/herd bound moments, but nothing at all resembling Tim's go-to maneuver. I'm sure that he is just testing me, and right now he is definitely winning the battle. Luckily, the rest of our XC schooling adventure was mostly uneventful, though we're hopefully going again this week to work out some kinks. Have bunches of pictures from yesterday, HUGE shout out to the bestie for documenting the whole experience :)

GAHHH SO CUTE 

Heel wayyyy down. YAY!

WEEE! Proof to me that I can actually jam my heels down.. there's still hope! 

Up the hill. Work those butt muscles

Need to fix that pesky jumping ahead issue, be he's adorbs 

Trying to remember to keep a soft/loopy rein 

I 

LOVE

THESE 

Tim Time

I had my first real ride on Timmy today - we had a dressage lesson with E. He was such a star and is so much fun to ride! I'm still trying to figure out the leg/contact ratio, but E said that when we get it, we're going to make a killing in the dressage ring ;) He is so rideable, has tons of suspension in his trot, and has the loveliest floaty canter... swoon. Unfortunately, I couldn't coerce anyone to watch and get proof of his awesomeness, but I have another lesson on Thursday and XC schooling on Saturday, so it will happen soon - promise!

In the meantime, enjoy how ridiculously adorable he was during his first bath in KY, as well as some pictures from his first couple of days here :)

Fresh off of the trailer! 

First Ride!

To serve as the Before - stay tuned for an After. Check out the boniness :(

I'm apparently a pro at choosing horses with huge cannon bones... Limerick's XL dressage boots fit Timmy perfectly

I think he likes the beautiful KY bluegrass :)

Itch

HAI

Prep

.... For our "Big Mini Trial" on Sunday!! This will mark the first time we go cross country in a competition, which is both scary and exciting. It's all three phases in one day, which is going to be really exhausting and potentially miserable, depending on the temperature and humidity. YAY for summer in the Ohio valley =|. 

So far, we have had one jump school and two dressage schools in which I specifically practiced things for the show. The jump school was on Sunday, hence my new banner photo! Lim was a superstar and I believe the jump shown in the banner picture is the biggest overall that we've jumped to date. It was roughly 2'6", with a decent sized spread and a polka-dot panel that you can't really see from the picture. The attempt in the picture was our third and best, though the other two were not bad. Limerick launched himself over it the first time, we got a bad distance the second, and I guess third time really is the charm :) 

Limerick definitely understood the "question" ...

A better view

Down we go

This was the bad distance... notice the left-behindedness! I was clearly trying to slip my reins

Magic :)

Yesterday, Hill was kind enough to help me practice my dressage test and read from it when necessary. It wasn't terrible, but Limmers and I fought more than I was hoping we would. We're doing starter at the show, but for some reason we've been assigned BN test A. I'm not unhappy about this, but we have never had a dressage test with canter in it until now, which caused the majority of our problems. Our circles were more like ovals, though we did have some that were darn near perfect! Limerick also was not really feeling the whole canter thing, and many attempts were made on his part to break to trot (GAAAHHHH). I was stiff, he was unwilling, and it was mostly us fighting against each other with some magical moments interspersed here and there. We ended with a nice walk around the farm property and I vowed to make today's ride better and more positive. 

We both survived our first bareback hack! Yes, I'm a chicken, but his spooks are difficult to sit with a saddle and stirrups

Finally, E returned just in time for me to have a lesson this afternoon. It was positively disgusting outside (helllloooo humidity) and I was dripping in sweat before we even started working... E decided to give us a new warmup routine today, in which I'm supposed to get Limerick really moving, first in trot and then in canter. Holy hell is he hard to stay with when he really gets moving! His trot throws me out of the saddle and it was all I could do to keep my stirrups. Canter was a little bit easier, but once again made my legs really sore. However, it was definitely fun and new for both of us, and I think it'll be a perfect warmup given how free and loose he was afterwards :) 

Once we were done running around the ring, E had us practice collection and bending on a circle. We had some fabulous, swinging trot work and there were definitely multiple moments where I could actually feel his back come up underneath me! The coolest part of the whole lesson was when I had him somewhat collected, on the bit, and working through his back. When he really looked good, E had me look down at his neck, where I could see a huge muscle bulging out and bouncing with our movement, showing just how relaxed he was through his neck!! WAY COOL. 

The rundown for the rest of the week:

Wednesday- group jump school with Hillary and Hue! 

Thurs.- hopefully a flat lesson so I can practice my dressage test again

Fri.- XC schooling!

Sat.- pack, braid, and do last minute tweaking of dressage test

Sun.- show

Mon.- Florida for the 4th :) 

Notice that shiny silver thing through the rear window ;)