In this video you’ll see me riding a 5yo mare. I apologize in advance for the audio quality. My cordless Mic and I are going to have to have a come to Jesus meeting. In this video you can see the mare really struggling to unlock her hips, and ribs, and face.
She is dull to my seat, and legs – basically just ignoring them both. Horses that are dull to your seat and legs, are dangerous because, they’re like, well, maybe I’ll get to moving… next Tuesday. You may not have until next Tuesday to wait. And because she’s dull to my seat and legs, and her feet are like, eh, maybe I’ll move, maybe I won’t, that makes her dull to my hands.
It’s liklely she’s just learned to ignore the feet and hands as they maybe haven’t been tied together in a way that makes sense to her. Or the other option is that they’ve been over-used and so she’s just like, “imma do my own thing, mkay-thanks!” When you’ve overused them with no result/change the horse just figures that’s how life is, “someone’s a banging on my side or face.”
I’m really excited for you guys to see her progress. Tomorrow we will go completely back to colt starting 101, including riding her in a rope halter. We’ll try to get that recorded for you so we can catalog this process. This mare is really kind and super gentle, but I’ve got to get her responsive if she’s going to make a barrel/rope horse. It’s on me to do a better job helping her understand what my legs and seat and hands mean to her.
There are a couple times in the video where I do get off of her – but you’ll notice it becomes a LOT of work for her when I’m off. And there’s a couple times where I have to untracked her the only directions she’ll go to keep myself safe, and we go right back to asking for what she’s certain she “can’t” do. Keep in mind, everything she’s doing is a try, she just doesn’t know what the “correct try” is.
Be sure, as always to ask questions, via the comment section below!