arabian girl:
I understand......my Arab gelding is like that. He thinks he is unbearably cute (which I have to admit, he is!) but he still needs to have gentle reminders now and then. Sounds like you and Blueberry are doing great tho; keep up the needed tickles and he will finally realize you are in charge...not him! Let us know how the Sat. show goes! Good luck!
I went to the Schooling show at the Virginia Horse Center on Saturday. My friend, came to get me. I was happy that she could do that since I sure didn't get the right kind of sleep. Kept waking up. So I was thrilled she could come after me. For somebody with Fibromyalgia she has more umpth than I do.
I kept my riding junk to the least amount I could get away with carrying off to this show. I should have packed something more to eat. I took cheese with me. I was fairly wired on Ribose. Have to take a lot, to be able to leg a pigheaded little horse like Blueberry.
He did real well this time. I only had to tickle him one time with the whip. I was greatly surprised that he ignored all the piles of other horse's poop. Generally he would have to at least admire these piles. No opportunities from me for him to attempt something like that with my constant alternating leg pressure.
I think it was nearly dark when I rode him. The sun looked like it was on its way down over the Blue Ridge mountains. I rode him to the music from the CD by Tom Scott called Reed My Lips, the tune was actually called Reed My Lips, a jazzy sax number that fit this little horse. I had a snappy walk out of him despite him having to work from 3 pm until about 8 pm in other events. He has a lot of endurance for a 13 years old.
I had to give him some apples before I got on him otherwise he gets mad at me. He was so mad this time that he didn't get all of them before we rode that he cribbed the mounting block bringing off the edge of it. He doesn't crib, he was just mad that he didn't get all of those 3 apples all at once.
His "mother" was there acting as the groom. I had to appologize to her for what I said last year about Blueberry acting like a butthead when I rode him last May. I may have said how he liked to turn around every few feet to nudge my boot with his nose. I sure hated that. Bugged me a lot. She acted like she didn't remember what I said about him last year. I sure had to eat crow!
There was a family at this show with a bunch of Fox Terriers not on leashes. The Horse Center requires that dog owners leash their pets. These little maniacs ran down to the Dressage ring. So I'm fixen to do my first 10 meter circle which I screwed up because these little jerks came into the ring. So I got Blueberry out of the way, but managed to do a much larger circle which I got a lower score on the inflated 10 meter circle. I heard my instructor behind me tell me that I had a good correction on the dogs. After the Freewalk, towards the end of the routine Blueberry stumbled once, or twice, so I know he was tired. I had a good balanced seat, so he didn't get off balance with me when he stumbled. It think I have been riding him barefooted for weeks. I don't think he has been shodd all month.
We had student judges for this schooling show, so I don't want to get down on myself too much over getting 3rd place on the Dressage Kur. But, I had a good ride on Blueberry. A lot of the adult riders sucked at their events too. So we could share our misery, I guess. None of us are used to messing up like this.
http://percheronridersdressagejourney.blogspot.com/