In my last post, called Head Throwing Problems, I wrote that Bonnie was throwing her head, and that she had lost interest in riding.
I’ve been using the open rein with Bonnie for a little while now, and I learned just the other day that when you start a horse under the saddle, you are supposed to start with the open rein, and gradually introduce the direct rein. Oops! Here I go again, doing everything wrong, and messing everything up! I did the opposite, I started with the direct rein, and now, come face to face with a problem, I have introduced the open rein. Now I know.
I have used the open rein with Bonnie for quite a while now, and just riding her the other day, I realized that she only threw her head once! It used to be such a problem for me, and it used to really scare me.
After the trail ride, Bonnie decided that trail riding is the only kind of riding she was ever going to do. I went out the day after to take her on another trail ride, but she was too excited, I thought she would bolt away with me if I tried. I took her into the cow’s pasture, so that I was closer to the beginning of the trail ride, and I hoped on. She would not listen to me whatsoever, she was to wound up and excited. I got off of her, and we went back to the horse pasture, but on the way she threw her head and then reared.
When I got back on her later that day, she threw her head a lot. All I could picture in my mind was her rearing up, and me falling off and breaking all of my bones. I was pretty nervous about getting on her.
Bonnie made a mental line in the center of the horse paddock, and when I was on her back, she would pace on the side that had the gate to the cow’s paddock, and she would refuse to go to the other side of the paddock. After some fighting, I was able to get her past, but she was upset, and all she wanted to do was go on a trail ride. All I wanted to do was go on a trail ride too, just without dying!!
I started to ride her less, and less. She began getting frustrated when I didn’t bring her out for a trail ride, and she would start pawing forcefully at the ground. Her head throwing got worse, and I rode less, and less. I tried making attempts to get back on her, but with rein pressure, she would throw her head, and she would be quick to paw the ground. When she pawed the ground, it sounded like she was stomping.
One day we let them back out into their four acre pasture, and I got on her there. I tried using the reins as little as possible, and she got away with a lot, but I was on her back. We came to the apple trees, and I almost got hit by a branch. Memories came flooding into my mind of that one time where my helmet had scraped a branch on the tree I was under, and Bonnie had been really startled. I used the reins to get Bonnie out of there, but she went straight back into a even more densely branched part of the tree. I was going to lean forward, but I realized my helmet would still be scraping the branches.
Instead of that, I did quite the silly thing, and I still roll my eyes and sigh over it. I reached up, and tried to push the branches up and over my head. In this position, my weight was put backwards, so any sudden movement would make me fall backwards. At all of this sound, Bonnie rushed forward, and I fell backwards. Well, of course.
I didn’t get back on Bonnie for about a month or so, not because of injuries- I brushed those a side as nothing but a failure- but because of fear. I think I have lost three or more months of riding due to fear, each time I have gone back and strengthened her groundwork a lot more- but I have become afraid.
Each time I take a break from riding because of a bad experience, I think about it a lot, and imagine it as bigger and scarier. Through this last month of sitting, I have feared her head throws, thinking that she will rear, and I will fall, get kicked in the head, and be no more. So really, even if I am bruised and aching because of a fall, or scared because of an experience, I need to get on, or I might not for a long while.
I got back on Bonnie not all that long ago, and I was so afraid. I got on her without reins about three times, and my fear vanished- or so I thought. Bonnie responded so well to my weight and leg cues, it was great! I got Mommy and Daddy to come out as I first put the reins on. I was on Bonnie, reins in hand, and I turned her head with the reins. Bonnie threw her head very heavily, and all the fear was back. I was almost shaking. I thought things like this a lot, “She is going to rear, and I am going to be dead, I know how this will play out.”
Mommy nodded me on, and said that Bonnie’s head throw didn’t look like she would follow it up with anything, so in almost terror, I kept asking. She kept throwing.
I think that day, I discovered that the open rein would help a lot in this case. About three rides later, I was good, she threw he head, but not as strongly, and I knew that she wasn’t going to follow up with anything. She was just voicing her frustration and irritation – or at least that’s what it started out with. I should have tried taking her on walks. She only threw her head as I started to pull on the rein, but afterwards, she didn’t. I didn’t need Mommy there any more.
Taking a step forward to today, I am on Bonnie, and I took her riding out side in her paddock yesterday for the first time since my last fall. I asked her out, she went, and we sat there for a little while. I got her to walk from one side of the paddock to the other with only one head throw. She yawned a few times, gave a few sighs, and did not paw at the ground at all.
On Bonnie I can walk forward, turn left or right, back up, stop, and I think, do a leg yield. I was afraid of this super sweet pony for so long, and I think that I just got on her, for the first time after my last fall, in December. I have been on Bonnie for about two months since my last break, for these two months, I have been riding her about once a week, give or take. It is a really sad amount. Yesterday I was on her twice, and I was on her for a short time today, hopefully I will be on her more often.
It may be unrealistic, but my goal is that once the snow lifts, that I can take Bonnie out on a trail ride. I need to work on desensitizing, leg cues, rein and weight cues, groundwork, lunging, pressure points, and a lot of other things.
Yesterday, I was on Bonnie, and she was passing through a large door, and my knee almost got stuck on the other side of the door, but it was able to be dragged through, scraping the door badly. It hurt a lot. I walked Bonnie through that door a few times after that, and I really used my leg to make sure that wouldn’t happen again, it is little things like this that help.
Bonnie is doing really good, a few of the things I have been working on with her for the last little while is: Pressure Points, ground tying, lifting a hoof on command, leading, trotting with me, liberty work, building a relationship, and staying still while being mounted.
So far, I have been getting lots of results with the liberty work, the pressure points, leading, trotting, and building a relationship. Lifting a hoof has been taking some time, and she is more willing to lift her feet every time. When we give them grain at night, I have been pouring the grain on to the floor and asking her to ground tie, the first night Bonnie thought that I hated her, the second night she didn’t fight- this time she had a halter and lead on. The ground tying is in progress, and I need to work on her being still while being mounted.
It has been quite the adventure, but it has been worth it every step along the way. This is all that I have for now, I would like to have some posts on how I teach Bonnie these thing which we have been working on, and I would like to update more about how Bonnie’s training has been going.
Kayli
Kayli's Homestead 