Ride at home

Since Maraschino has been home I have been playing with him every day and when I do that he's such a fast learner. He was much more relaxed today despite the rain this morning and he offered to get but on the pedestal. Now this is no s mall pedestal. It's a filled tractor tire!!!

This was just as he was getting off.

Soon after this Michelle arrived as she had offered to ride him for me. She was happy with what she saw I'd done after seeing him canter and trot, and she hopped on. It started raining!

She did some lateral flexions and disengaged the hq. Then we got him hooked on to me to get him to go straight instead of what he seemed to like to which was going round in circles. He had a couple of frights but she's super cool and calm and one rein stopped him. We observed that he almost gets so fixated on something he's concentrating on that he momentarily forgets he has a rider, then gets a fright. She just walked today but he went really well. It was bucketing down at the end so it was challenging for him and he did really well.

 

Maraschino's weekend workout

I spent the weekend and Friday getting Maraschinos confidence and curiosity back to where it should be plus advancing all the games and pre-ride checks. He's very good at staying focused in me now rather than getting distracted. I did two sessions a day. In the AM we did sending to obstacles and walk trot and canter with the saddle on and stirrups down. He didn't blink an eyelid.

 

I also put the bridle on for the first time, starting his bridling training off well by getting him to have his head low and seek the bit. He spent the whole time chewing the bit but I think he likes chewing on things. I did the bit simulations for contact and also lateral flexion like Linda showed with Hot Jazz. I also did some liberty in the pen with him. Little more difficult to get the HQ to move round than the FQ.

In the afternoon we did circling with me on the barrel, walk trot canter and change of direction then figure 8. By the end of tonight he was trotting and cantering quite relaxed then he did figure 8 at trot. Cool.

Then I got up on my huge tyre and did some work from up there, getting him to stand for mounting, do figure 8s back toe, and lateral flexions as well as HQ disengagement. Lots of relaxing and rubbing too and head down....I'd spent the middle of both days this weekend watching all the RBI DVDs again.

Taking the bridle off the normal way (not undoing the buckle) made him out his head up tonight so we worked on that till it was good. Lots of yawning after that.

I got Tori's Tshirt yesterday...it's nice.

 

Maraschino coming home

The crash test dummy aka Taryn has exams this week so she won't be available to ride Maraschino till later next week, and the girls are away all weekend at a clinic so I bought him home! It's so good to have him home, and Coco agrees.

I took Garbo down there and went for a ride first, then loaded Garbo and then Maraschino. He practically self loaded! Off we set home. They both travelled well and Maraschino didn't poop!

Here are the boys on camera on the drive home.

On arrival he tried to rush off before I had undone the barriers so I asked him forward and to wait. Off he came and then I unloaded Garbo as well and took them both to the wash bay. I put their covers on and then gave him a big scratch. He yawned some big yawns and then I put them in the paddock. He walked around checking all the poo piles and the new rubber in the round pen all while eating grass! Think he's enjoying the space!

This is a rainbow on the way there....down our road...it rained quite heavily just before I loaded. We need it so its good.

 

Maraschino's first ride out - 2nd time round

So I'm going to call her the Crash Test Dummy - but her name is Tarryn and she is one cool cucumber and a great rider, and lovely person - great with the horses... the girls get her in for the first rides...

Before she arrived Michaela had done some ground preparation with the flags - he thinks he's pretty clever now with the flags. Any sign of lameness was gone so that was good.

Then Tarryn checked him out on the ground, bumping stirrups etc, disengaging the HQ, they call it rolling over the HQ. Then she hopped on and basically did exactly what Parelli peeps would do which was lovely to see. One rein riding with just the halter and lead rope and tossing from side to side, lateral flexion alot, disengaging the HQ, lots of rubbing.

The new kitten was watching him go round the round pen with me.

   

Tarryn was really good with Maraschino and I liked the way she was with him, really patient and so confident.

Michaela was there to drive or send from the ground if needed. Or to move the HQ, or move the FQ.

At one point she was trotting him round the outside and touched him on the rump with her hand and he did a huge scoot and tucked his bum under him - she just calmly asked him to a stop with one rein with no change in her voice what so ever while she talked to him.

Then she asked for canter and he managed 1/4-1/2 a lap before he got a bit worried and started bucking - not big bucks, so Tarryn asked for a one rein stop and it took a while for her to get his head (they don't use the power position like we do) - he was pretty worried with the whole canter-buck-emergency stop - she ;et him ret for ages and you could see he was busy processing.

She trotted him again both ways and stopped nicely before getting off and by then he was licking alot  - I was really happy with the whole session.

Week 3 & Maraschino doing well

Maraschino had a session again today and he at one point had the lead rope kind of stuck on the saddle horn therefore asking him to bend laterally - he kind of panicked a bit and then it started to rain and he over-reacted to everything because Michaela's rain coat was making funny noises. So it was a while before Michaela jumped on.

She amazes me - she gets on and off from the ground!!

Then she added the flags and he cantered around the arena with those...I think he's going to be pretty easy going at the end of all this because they certainly cover all bases.

When she was on she mainly did FQ and HQ yields and not very much just forward...
Afterwards we shooed the cows on the way back to his paddock - that was fun.