3rd April update

Catching:

Today she didn't want to be caught. I'm very wary of her back legs as the pain from the last kick is still evident on every step I take, so I wasn't forceful with her and I moved away from her as she turned and walked off. Each time I followed her (out of kicking distance!) talking to her constantly. Though she would let me stroke her neck, she moved away as soon as I brought the head collar up. I don't want to make sudden 'grabby' movements with her as I don't want to teach her that snapping etc is ok, so I just patted her again before she moved away and then continued to follow her. Usually this only takes a couple of goes and she'll then stand quietly while I put the head collar on, today it was about 5 minutes, but she was in an open area of the field, with lots of horses around, and one (D) seems to have fallen in love with her and was getting in the way, plus they all started hooning around a bit. But after a while, I walked up to her, this time she didn't move away, and the head collar went on nice and smoothly.



Leading in: 

She's taken to planting a lot recently, so that bringing in becomes a frustrating combination of gently pushing her from side to side to get her off balance and moving, so that the momentum can be used to get her going forward, and her then planting again two steps later. She's not scared, it's nothing to do with the other horses around  she'll walk fine for a couple of minutes then just plant every other step for a minute, then walk on as if nothing had happened. Today she planted a couple of times but then D decided he had to follow her every step and then the rest of the herd decided to head our way, so she was actually walking quite fast to the gate as they hooned past. Couple more plants on the bridge but D was pacing and calling to her as we past the field/river border. Fine the rest of the way with no more plants.



Grooming:

Mostly fine. Fussy with brush above her feet so used my fingers, which worked just as well. Tried a shedding blade on her for the first time. Was fine initially, then she realised it wasn't a brush, threw a tantrum and cow kicked out, just missing me as I jumped back. I shouted at her and tapped her quarters with the shedding blade then walked to her head to reiterate the 'no' message in a firm voice. She jerked back, presumably thinking I was going to hit her head. I moved into 'her' space, talking to her more gently, and when she realised I wasn't hitting her she put her ears forward and rested her nose on my chest - she's never done that before. It's reactions like this that make me think she is genuine and really does want to please - she just doesn't understand everything yet and her instinct if she's unsure of something is to quickly get frustrated and hit out, whether with her teeth or feet. With feet picking for instance, when we were getting used to each other, once she realised I did them all in the same order, she was so eager to please that she'd pick one up, then snatch it down again a moment later, and pick the next one up, as if she wanted to show me how good she was. (Now she does actually wait until I release each foot...)


Moving over:

I've been working on moving her body over for some time - any pressure on her side was previously met with her kicking out, ears flat back, head swinging round and threatening me with her teeth. Today I asked her to move over 3 times, and got 3 moves over. Yes, with a bit of swishy tail and a grump, but she responded to each request quickly and correctly. She put her ears forward when verbally praised - she usually has her ears back when around people (not when ridden though)


Riding:

I led her into the school area (her second time in the school), as the ponies were in the paddock and no-one was around to do the gates for me. The main field horses were gathered in the area just on the other side of the river, and D was calling to Q as soon as we got into the school. Q was very tense and looking at the herd so I walked her round in hand once then got on. She was still tense, but with lots of walk-halt-walk transitions and turns around the school she started to relax enough to do a couple of tester trots, whereas I had only planned on walking, and she was fine. 

I'd always done rising trot with her so far out hacking, with sitting being a signal to come back to walk. Today I tried walk - sitting trot - walk, first with my voice and hands backing up my seat, then after a couple of times with my seat only - she responded really well. It's things like this that make me want to persevere with her - she definitely can be the responsive, sensitive, dream riding horse that I want, I just need to put the solid foundations in before I do too much with her. Ultimately I want to just 'think' something and her do it, and she's showing signs of being able to do that - we just need to properly get to know what each other means.


Feeding: 

For the first time in ages she was almost totally calm when I fed her - she's usually very 'foody' and aggressive at feeding time, and whether tied up or in her box, does a little 'dance' involving jumping up and down, baring her teeth and swinging her head all over the place that actually looks very threatening. None of that today, just a little ears back, which is standard for Q in general.


Thoughts:

Since I posted about being scared of her, I've being doing a lot of (over-)thinking. The main reason why I'm so scared of riding her now, given that she's pretty much bombproof, does no acrobatics, and is mostly very responsive, is, I think, the 'what if' and safety aspect. I know I was so lucky when I had my fall that the ground was so soft, and that someone saw what had happened. But I'm usually at the yard on my own in the evenings, hacking out alone, and now I coming home to an empty house. If anything happened when out riding on her, no one would know we were missing to raise the alarm. And given that the site of my fall is 5 minutes from home and on almost all the hacking routes, there's no avoiding the area. Either I do a short ride around the vineyard, the exact route I did when I fell, or I do a longer ride crossing a busy road twice and still coming back along the 'fall' stretch of the vineyard.

But in the last week or two, the schooling area has dried up enough to be reasonably rideable. If anything happens in there, I can bail (and hopefully roll next time!!!!) if absolutely necessary, and she can't get out of the stable yard due to the fencing, so there would be no danger of her getting loose and causing an accident to a third party. So it's fairly 'safe'. Plus the likelihood of her thinking 'woooooo, galloping place' in there is low! So the plan is, if no one is around in the evenings, I won't go out, just in case. It means we'll have loads of opportunities to get to know each other inside out (even if we get a bit bored) and when the evenings get that little bit longer, and we can start venturing out with others, we'll be that much more confident about getting home still together.

Having rationalised the riding side, I can deal with the groundwork side more easily. I was freaking out about freaking out, and of course that was making her more tense and making me freak out more. Yes I had a bad 3 weeks with her, but those were the first real bad things that happened. There is no pressure to rush to the yard from work, drag (literally!) her in from the field and go on a mad long fast hack. Tonight was lovely - just a relaxed groom and pamper, a little ride, and nice dinner. We can do it. We know that. We just need to do more of it.

I'm still scared of her though...