Well, I was being really good about keeping up with these blogs until the last month and a half. Sorry...I thought it would be easy in the winter, but they just didn't get the priority they deserved. So I will now attempt to catch you up with where Hailey has been and what she has done!
Let's see last time I wrote it was about going bareback and that was after the New Year's day ride. I think the biggest accomplishment she has made since then is the ability to pony another horse behind her. When I first tried the ropes were too ticklish on her sides. She is so sensitive that even my legs were causing her to stop and wonder what the heck. Before our big debut ponying I was out one day with the dogs on a ride in a quiet neighborhood called Peaceful Valley. It really is peaceful, but there is still activity about and I had my older dog Ellie with us. First Ellie has bad hips and really shouldn't be going out with me, but she loves it so much I try to take her on short rides, and second, she can not help herself and runs back and forth going at least 10x as far as we do. Anyway I saw a loose dog up ahead and I decided to forgo any confrontations and I put Ellie on a rope and kept her with me. Hailey was doing ok, but every time the rope would tickle her legs, and it truly was a tickle as it was only a small 1/4 savvy string, she would scoot sideways and look at Ellie. We would stop and regroup and it seemed like she was getting used to it. But then Ellie went way around to the other side and that just seemed too much for her, so I let it go for the day.
Next time out was the big test. I may have mentioned before how in love she and Larz are, so I thought that would be the best combination for her to get used to someone behind her. The day was GORGEOUS, so I got Anna to come and we took 4 horses out. She was on Kidd ponying Shaea, I was on Larz with Hailey in tow. All horses fully tacked up with the intent of switching as the moment hit us to do so. The first time I took Hailey out in tow, she was really lazy and not wanting to keep up. Of course Larz being a Tennessee Walker does just that and Hailey really had to keep up, which she did quite well, I was very proud of that difference.
The trails were not nearly as slippery as I was expecting so we were able to even have a bit of a canter. Hailey was not really willing to move faster than a trot on line for some reason. Larz was being so good about trying to canter while being dragged by an anchor. After a few minutes of that I thought it was time to make the first switch. Switch accomplished and off up the hill we went to finish the nice running stretch. I had to have a discussion with Larz about the fact that now he was not the leader, but really they did very well. Hailey cantered as soon as I asked and huffed and puffed her way to the top of the hill without even making mention of the ropes around her. As a matter of fact she didn't even make note of the ropes the whole time I was ponying Larz! Problem overcome!
The following week I was taking a young student out on a "walk" up the road. It really is more than a walk, but we call it that. This time I was ponying Frenchie who is also a leader, but has done a lot of ponying from both perspectives. This day he was being good, just wanted to walk a trot a bit faster than Hailey. This time we didn't have any trouble with the ropes, however, every time Frenchie got a little ahead, Hailey would totally back off and stop! This would send Frenchie around the front and we would have to regroup and start again. Actually it was a really good exercise for the student as even though I had her on line, she had to take some control or we were going to go no where pretty slow. As each of us learned out responsibilities the ride got better and better and by the time we got home we were a happy couple, horses and riders.
To bring you all the way up to yesterday...We had an arena day. The first day I was on Hailey in the arena, there was no amount of coaxing that could even persuade her to trot. Yesterday however, she maintained her gait during trotting passenger lesson with only a couple of corrections and...She cantered the full circumference of the arena! We trotted over small 10" jumps with no hesitation, cute little hops lifting her feet nicely, lots of very lovely soft back up to trot, hindquarter disengage without moving a front foot, 180 hindquarter turns lifting her front end nicely around and she picked me up off the mounting block with hardly even a lift of my hand!
She has certainly come a long way in the three months she has been here. I look forward to meeting the person who comes forward to be her partner!
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