Lessons

I know it's been a little bit since I last updated. Things are going okay. Dressage lessons have been somewhat fun for the most part. Jasper's been doing both better than I anticipated and worse than I anticipated.

For the first few lessons, our instructor was feeling us out and trying to figure out where our weaknesses were. Jasper really did quite well, transitions were okay and our instructor was happy with where we were, "especially for an endurance horse." He quickly learned Jasper's go-to evasive behavior is the sideways walk/trot/canter with head held in the air (and more recently, bucking!). So on went the martingale and then a new side of Jasper was seen--ANGRY Jasper.

Our instructor [correctly] has decided our problem is due to a distinct lack of discipline on my part and Jasper's thought that he runs the show. When I show Jasper that in fact I run the show, we have a battle. We had a particularly hairy lesson last week with Jasper threatening to rear and him throwing in frequent bucks with trot/canter transitions and then with general trotting. But we worked through them together and ended the lesson on a really good note, and my instructor was pleased. Our instructor/psychologist said that Jasper is holding me emotionally hostage, threatening to act like a basketcase if I don't let him get his way of going fast. The good news is, he believes our issues are actually more minor than I thought and he said they have to get much, much worse before they will get remarkably better. Well, we had much, much worse last week.

I'm actually a little surprised we're even getting to work on these trail issues in the arena. I figured lessons would give us more of a base and I would get to apply my knowledge to the trail issues, not that I would actually get to work through them in a more controlled environment. So as much as it scares me when Jasper acts like this, I keep reminding myself how my chances of being hurt are much less in the arena and I have an expert there helping me work through them. Still, they are a little scary.

...

Since I was a kid, I've been scared of the potential of horses. It was an odd relationship--I was in love with all things horse, but when it came to actual horses, I was more or less terrified. I don't think this was helped by the fact that fairly early on (like, within 2 days of getting to work with real, live horses) I was double-barreled in a field by a shit grey pony for no reason. I was standing there feeding him some treats and in the next second I was sitting on my butt with him trotting his fat pony butt into the sunset with a bruise the size of a grapefruit developing on my right hip. Suddenly, the potential for pain and even death occurred to me and frightened me. But with the knowledge of a too-old-for-her-years 12-year-old I realized that wonderful things were not always easy and I needed to work to figure out why that happened and work to prevent it from occurring again. When I think of how high my heart rate used to go when picking up a foot for cleaning I am reminded of how far I've come in 16 years.

...

My good friend and I went out for our first ride out since our Pink attempt this weekend. Mostly walking with some trotting bits for good measure. Nice and slow, easy and relaxed. Within seconds of mounting, Jasper experimentally stretched his neck to check for the dreaded martingale, and upon finding it, set about finding ways to evade it's mysterious power. As anticipated, Jasper wanted to click back in to "I-Run-The-Show" mode and we battled for the first mile or so of walking. Once he settled down he did really well, until we trotted. He threw in a couple of bucks and did that amazing floating diagonal trot with his chin tucked as close to his chest as he could manage. I asked my friend to slow while I sorted him out and off we went. The first few trot sections were pretty rocky with him wanting to either go 16 miles an hour or prance sideways, but eventually he settled in and actually relaxed following her little mare down the trail. It was good.

So, the plan. The Owyhee Canyonlands five day ride is at the end of the month. Depending on how things go (or not, depending on how you look at it), we will try to do 2-3 days. Doing 2 days in a row would knock him off his block, and we would definitely be riding with another person the whole time. Day 1 would likely be a little hairy, but I imagine day 2 will be much better, and by day 3 I hope he will have learned a lesson.