Riding Missy & Lunging Misty

Wednesday wasn't supposed to be a barn night. But, it ended up being one -- Mom took me out there so that I could lunge Misty and Missy.

I got Misty out and picked out her feet (no, I didn't brush her... lazy me lol) and then asked her nicely to get out of my space. The whole time I was walking her from the pasture to the outdoor arena, she was up in  my space. She would jig sideways, running her shoulder into me, and I would tap her on the shoulder with the lead rope; she would back off, and then do it again. Occasionally she tried to bite me and that earned her a pop on the nose. Now, I'm not saying that I hit her extremely hard, I just tapped her on the nose; I don't know how, but she has developed a biting problem that she didn't have when she first came to SunnyBrook. Sigh.

Lunging went terribly. I can't wait until the indoor arena / round pen is actually free when I'm out there (for once) and I can free-lunge her. She had such a fading out problem while I was trying to lunge her, I thought she was going to turn tail and dash back to the barn. While trotting, she would cut off part of the circle, pushing her shoulder down into the circle  and heading straight towards me. How did I fix it? I tried using body language at first. Then, I used body language and I said, "Get off!" Next, I used body language, vocals, and I tapped her on the shoulder with the whip. That set her off. She must have a great fear of the whip; she bucked and reared and dashed off. I did desensitizing with the whip at the end of our lunge session - ending on a good direction change and then a nice easy, stretchy trot going the way we'd had difficulty - and she was fine with the whip touching her all over, and it swishing and snapping beside her. I don't get it. Honestly, I just wonder if she's even seen a whip before.

I put her up just as Garth pulled into the barn to get our hay fork so that he could move some hay around at his farm. I said hi to him and his helper person he had with him (a guy my age). I went and got Missy and stood and talked to Garth for a while about showing. Then, he left and Uncle David pulled in. He worked around the barn a bit. I got a text from Lisa saying her, Troy, and the kids (Chase and Jake, Ry wasn't there) were heading out; she said that she could take me to dinner and then home later if I wanted to stay and ride Missy instead of just lunging. I said sure, told Mom, and Mom left. Uncle D drove back to his house as I was brushing Missy.

I went crazy brushing Missy. She was so. freaking. filthy. I wanted to throw up at how much dirt was on her legs; I hate brushing legs, I've always been warned that I could hurt them if I brushed their legs too hard. So I spent about 20 minutes brushing her, mostly on her legs and where the saddle goes. She was practically sparkling by the time I was done. I still can't wait to give her a bath. She is filthier than a pig fresh out of the mud. Then, I threw a saddle on and was about to bridle her when Lisa, Troy, and the kids drove up. They entered the barn and Lisa and I exchanged hugs. She and Troy contemplated Lisa riding Chief, and in the end Lisa got Chief and saddled him up while I warmed up in the round pen.

Missy was an angel. She was having some trouble keeping her footing, but that's because Troy kindly watered the arena for me and it was a bit slick. I think Missy will be a bit better at balancing and being able to grip the ground better when she gets her shoes on, on Tuesday. Our canter was nice; our trot, much better. I think we'll be able to do both WP and contesting/barrels this year in 4H. It's going to be so much fun, having two barns, two groups of people, and two horses to experience 4H with.

Then, Lisa got Chief into the arena and lunged him while I stood in a stall with Missy, talking to Chase (who was leaning against the John Deere tractor) while Lisa did that. Then, we headed outside to trail ride. Boy, Chief was feeling fresh.

Missy girl was a dead head, as always. She had a bit of trouble climbing a steep incline, but we made it up and then back down again later. Chief was prancing, he spooked three times (almost throwing Lisa once when she was unprepared - there wasn't even anything he could spook at, nothing big and nothing scary, just open space) and that surprised me. Her remark about it:

"Someone must've drugged him before we trail rode last time. He was way too calm to be clean."

That made me laugh, that's for sure. Especially because we're about to start a program with the YOC. I can't say much about it yet for confidentiality reasons but I'll talk more about it soon. I might set up a locked post about it that just my followers can see, but I'm not sure yet. We'll see, that's for sure.

Anyways. After trail riding, we went through the motions in the arena. Just basic work; Chief was not feeling happy about cantering. He bucked about a billion times. But eventually, we ended on a good note. We went back into the barn and untacked. We turned Missy and Chief out into the lot behind the round pen; we are putting them in there and because they are the two skinniest horses in the barn and they both get pushed off of the round bales AND grain. So, we mixed up grain and beet pulp and gave it to them, and gave the rest a bit of grain.

We then proceeded to go to the new restaurant, Bamboo Buffet, and had a delicious dinner before they took me home.

Good times!!