Spring in the air

This week I feel that we have turned a corner! Spring is nearly here. The air is little bit warmer than it has been and we've had a couple of sunny days. My car temperature was showing 8 degrees today, as I drove home from the yard. 

Busy week and started the week off with having a sore back (again!), as managed to twinge it on Saturday when was lifting R's water bucket – with straight legs, so my back protested quite badly. This resulted in Tim having to come and basically do the mucking out for me on Sunday, as I could just about walk. So Rainbow had a day off – it was a rainy day and as R's mud fever in one of the hind legs flares up from time to time, I though it was best to keep her in. I don't particularly like to keep her stabled all day, but at weekends we can't even use the back warm-up arena for letting horses there, as it's usually a show day on Sundays. To make R's day not quite as boring, I dotted little piles of hay around her stable, so she could at least entertain herself by searching for the food a bit.

Saturday we did a rainy hack around the village just the two of us. Overall it was fine, but when we got to the main road, the traffic was a bit heavy and the wet ground was causing cars to make extra swishing noise, so R was a bit nervous as we tried to make our way past some houses and the petrol station. Then there was a man with a brolly and a dog, and I thought, great, as R's head and ears shot up the moment she spotted him ambling towards us. I thought I'd lose her, so I shouted ahead at the man if he didn't mind closing his umbrella for a bit. Luckily, he was a nice man and said, when we got to him, that he's used to horses, so he was very understanding. I thanked him and said it's a bit trafficky too, so it was a bit too much for R. Usually Rainbow isn't silly when out, but I guess on our own she has to be more on guard, than when we go with others, as she's the one who has to look out for the dragons lurking everywhere. 

After the hack, I did my back in, as already explained, so on Monday I ended up lunging her. Last time I lunged her (sometime before Christmas) she totally played up (you can read about it here!), so haven't attempted it since. Mainly also because I wanted someone experienced to help me and Annika has only been back in action since Jan,  since her broken finger has healed...

Sure enough, Rainbow was refusing to go on the 'difficult' rein (left rein – going anti-clockwise) and Annika had to fight with her. Rainbow basically turns towards you and doesn't let you go beyond the imaginary girth line. But, if you manage to get 'behind' her and crack the whip she begins to move. Annika did get her going and I think R was a bit annoyed/frustrated/full of beans as she just went into a canter and bucked a few times too. I said to Annika that let her run and vent off the energy if she wants to, as she would only do us all a favour by knackering herself out. Annika kept her going on both reins with side reins on, then we swapped 'in flight', so I took hold of the lunge rope. All was good until I decided to stop her and take the side reins off and begin the cool-down. 

Miss Bossy Boots realised that she could stop playing ball again, now that we were on our own and Annika had left. She would not let me past her, she would turn around towards me and stand there like 'ha! What are you going to do about this!?' I tried the nice way, by stroking and patting her, slowly moving towards her side, but I could not get her to move – other than turn towards me. I tried the nasty way and poked her in her chest and made her back as, if she wouldn't play ball, I could still 'bully' her into backing, hence, possibly showing some hierarchy. I don't know, but she was a bit baffled. Then I thought I'd just lead her around the school a bit, so as to say that at least we're walking where I want us to walk. She walked with me like a lamb. 

Finally, at the end of my tether, I remembered the treats in my pocket. Not obviously wanting to reward her bad behaviour, but thought if I could stretch my hand, while holding the treat, far enough for her to reach for it and me to allow get by her side, there could, possibly, be a victory in sight... This didn't work, she still knew what I was up to – or my arm isn't long enough! I didn't want to give the treat to her as that would be a direct reward for her misbehaviour. So I pondered for a bit. Against all my instincts of not rewarding her, I decided to feed the treat to her... And victory was mine: the second she was concentrating on the treat, quick as a flash I moved towards her backside and cracked the whip and got her moving! I could see her look at me 'you bitch...' as she was again trotting on as I had made her go. I don't want to gloat, but sometimes it's quite satisfying to outsmart your own horse ;).

We ended on a good note – her going to my command – I didn't attempt another rein as thought that would be enough. I praised her and we went back to the stable.

This post is getting very long now, so I won't talk about the rest of the week at length, except to say that our Thursday's dressage lesson went well again and we had a good group lesson this morning. As a reward, I took R to the field for the day, as it's such a gorgeous day. I will go back there this evening to bring her in.

Yesterday I noticed that I had ridden and mucked out Rainbow in the afternoon, and when I was heading home after 5 o'clock it was still light outside. No need for head torch... Spring is DEFINITELY on its way - huzzah!