Just the Way You Are

I am really enjoying this warm sunny weather as it gives me a chance to spend more time with my horses. One of my favorite things to do is ride to music and now that I own an IPOD with some pretty awesome speakers, I can play my music anywhere, including outdoors in the arena. I just put it on and shuffle the songs and off we go. I find that the slower music works well when I'm trying to get my nervous, sensitive horse to improve her lateral moves-shoulder in, travers, renvers (In the travers and renvers the horse is bent evenly from head to tail. The haunches come away from the line of travel either away from (travers) or toward (renvers) the wall. The forehand stays on the line of travel.) It makes her nervous when I put my leg back because she thinks I'm trying to ask her to move off forward and the more I press on her flanks the faster she goes. So then I try to keep her from going forward by holding the rein steady, open and close to get her to slow. It's not that she can't do the maneuvers, it's that she needs desensitizing to my leg so she understands not to move off quickly or exaggerate her entire body around to the right or left as she would on a circle. Lateral moves are so great for getting their back end strong and flexible and the back lifted, so that when you ask them to move off straight or on a circle, they "collect" themselves or work more off of the strength of their hindquarters with very light touch down of the forequarters. Horses only put 60% of their weight on the forehand if they are standing still. Once they learn to balance and strengthen themselves with the weight of the rider, there is much less weight on front end.

With everything new comes stress for my horse (and me) and the lateral moves for her have made her more nervous. I've begun practicing them on the ground with me standing behind her tail and just to the side with the lunge rope going through the stirrup. We also work on WHOA and back up. I'm teaching her to back up with a slight pull of her tail or tap on her back. This is a real challenge for a horse that takes any contact as a reason to move off and especially a pull on her tail. Sensitive right brain horses don't mind moving their front ends away, but they don't like to "give up" the hindquarters as it is their means of escape.

I had the chance to help a new horse owner with her thoroughbred mare whose personality is much like my Morgan, Chanty. Nervous, sensitive and prone to use flight as an escape whenever she feels pressure (emotionally or physically). She does not like the constant pull of the reins and it will be the first issue for her owner-learning to be as light as possible with her hands. I feel for her-I still work on that issue daily. My horse keeps me honest though and I know when I'm getting it right....or wrong.

At the end of my lesson to music with Chanty, I went to retrieve Sal from her dry paddock and brought my portable "boom box" so I could listen while I cleaned her dry paddock in the warm afternoon sun. Sal just wanted me to finish and take her up to eat, but I couldn't resist serenading her to Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are". "I would not leave you, in times of trouble, we never could have come this far...." "I just want someone, that I can talk to. I love you just the way you are." Sal was not impressed but I hugged on her anyway. Her coat is looking so much better since I switched to some dryer/coarser grass hay. The stable owner said that the other hay they supply is actually a "poor man's alfalfa" which contains lots more starches. The worst thing for Sal. Since switching to plain old grass hay, the flaking, gray powder from the skin fungus has almost disappeared and she is not rolling in mud to relieve the itching-her coat is clean and shiny. She looks brighter too. Next issue it to try some low dose bute to control her hock arthritis. I have to keep the old girl moving.

Oh well, the girls are as different as can be but I enjoy every minute with them. I hope they feel the same and that they would say "Don't go changing to try and please me....I love you just the way you are."