Gem and Tina

I've been keeping Gem separate from the herd. I'm trying to help him develop some independence and thus less pull to home when I take him away. Today, he was out on the front pasture, about 15 acres, by himself. This is big for Gem. He was calmly grazing for hours. A big change.

After work, I walked out to the edge of the pasture to bring Gem in for some training. He saw me across the pasture and came cantering to me! It was so sweet. My poor, lonely boy. We went to the barn, tacked up and started in the round pen with online work. His transitions on the circle are looking good. Actually, we had a nice, smooth round pen session. Then I mounted and we went to the arena for cloverleaf, some haunches in and leg yields, disengaging the hind and the fore, and transitions. His canter transitions were the most beautiful they've ever felt. He's mind is softer and more amenable to our partnership. He's changing, I can feel it.

Then, I haltered Rain - another one of my horses who was happy to see me and came right over to me - and tacked her up. I wanted to take Tina on the trail and lead her with Rain. I wanted to see how she'd respond to the stimulus on the trail. The weather was yucky! Cold drizzle and wind. I haltered Tina, did a quick ground work warm up with Rain, and off we went.

Tina is so concerned about being too close to Rain that she will allow a lot of pressure on the poll - it's a problem. I fear that she'll develop a serious pull-back problem. I want her giving to pressure on the poll always. We'll do more pony work and get her soft and light on the poll. We didn't go far, but she was adamant about staying behind Rain instead of next to Rain. I'm assuming Rain was giving her signals and language that reminded Tina to get out of her space. I'll continue to keep Rain focused on her job for me and continue to ask Tina to have a little courage and walk on the side of Rain and not behind her. She got better as we went on and by the end, she was leading up much more nicely and walking with her zone 2 in Rain's zone 4. That was a huge improvement.

It started raining on us and my face was getting pelted as we headed back. Brrrr! Rain wanted to hustle home and I kept reminding her to mind my seat and go the speed I asked. When she gets her druthers, her 4-beat gait is so gorgeous! Tina was trotting and actually doing better than she was at a walk (with staying on Rain's side).

Once in the barn, I started to work on hooves. The damp weather helps me trim - the sole and bars are just a tad softer. Tina's front hooves are shaped up much more nicely and I'm still working on the hinds. The amount of overgrown bar is unreal and I'm slowly trimming that back to find the sole. She has a lot of striation in the white line where the wall has been forced away from the solar plan. Her lateral grooves are not very deep, which tells me her sole isn't very thick - I'm curious to see how much I can influence that in 6 months. Her right foot seems to be a little clubby and her left front is terribly underslung. Watching her walk away after getting the front's fixed up was interesting. It was obviously a different sensation for her! She could feel the ground again! I'm hoping now that we can get her frog healthy.

I wanted to get a saddle back on her today but decided not to with the rain. I was fighting illness all last week and decided to wait until my health had returned. We say goodbye to the Rain on Friday, so I plan to back her this weekend and start getting her feeling of a rider's weight on her. Once I know she can manage being a good pony horse, I'll start trailering her around to different trail heads and exposing her to more and more. She's doing great! I'm amazed to see her move my dogs. She lowers her head, pins her ears, and moves Deuce all over the place! That's a confident and brave thing to do. Still figuring her out.