HorsebackWriting

Working Liberty & Clover

posted in Blog, FSHR Horses | Monday, October 10th, 2011

Snacking before bridled & ridden

This morning Erin and I worked with Liberty and Clover.  Liberty had not been ridden since coming back from fostering with Donna, who had ridden her quite a bit.  Reunited with the other “kateers,” she had been running around in the forty with them for a little more than 2 weeks, and required a quite a bit of ground work.  Erin worked with yields, backing, leading, and general ground respect before longeing her.  She accepted the saddle after a bit of jumping about, and took the bridle easily. The ground work took more than an hour.  The ride itself was only for about 15 minutes in the arena.

I worked with Clover, who had not been ridden since Princess was weaned, which was quite a long time.  But we have been doing ground work in the interim because her personality changed slightly since the weaning, and she had become more pushy.  Today, she was more compliant and respectful than she has ever been.  We worked on the ground for about 20 minutes without the saddle and 20 minutes with the saddle.  Clover has maintained her general equanimity with being tacked up and ridden around.  She took the bridle easily and lumped on the bit for awhile.  I let her carry it around and cued her with legs, rope halter and lead rope. She seemed more confident with Liberty in the arena and while following Erin.  This ride also was only for about 15 minutes. Of course, no pictures of me riding because I’m the photographer!

Erin rides Liberty

Liberty with confidence

Longeing Liberty

Adjusting tack