Kehbir and Sudi are WOOLY. For Kehbir this is nothing to even turn your head about, but for Sudi, it’s a pretty significant feat. I’m mostly afraid that it means that we’re about to have a really cold spell approaching us, but so far, we still have mildly winterish days with splashes in the 60 - 70’s every now and then. The down pour of rain that we’ve received recently is starting to clear and the wind has popped up to dry out the land some; A VERY welcome relief!!
Last weekend Sudi and Kehbir each had a dressage lesson with our local dressage guru Susan Selvey. I, unfortunately, missed most of my mom’s and Kehbir’s lesson due to the fact that the farm was absolutely BUZZING with nutty activity. Horses were galloping around madly in their fields, riders were throwing temper-tantrums, children were running around crazily, and Sudi was by NO means happy to be stuck in the trailer waiting for his lesson. He very adamantly let me know that he was, by no uncertain terms, VERY upset that he could not see that everything was ok with Kehbir.
I really went back and forth on how to handle this. I didn’t want to “give in” to his Arab-y behavior by taking him out, but at the same time, his rampant pawing and head banging were giving me a bit to worry about. I finally thought I had calmed him, but when I made it back to the dressage ring to watch my mom, one of the riders (who was now down on the ground from her bucking horse) was lunging her now bucking bronco and shouting profanities. Well this got Sudi completely riled up again. So, I took him out.
Once out of the trailer he was perfectly well behaved despite the raucous, although he left behind a rather long trail of nervous diarrhea from the trailer.
As I watched the end of Kehb’s and my mom’s lesson, I noticed that they were starting to get some really nice consistency (strangely this has always been a forte of Sudi’s so never a big issue for us), and the beginning of bend. Kehb’s looked happy to have begun figuring out his job, and my mom’s position looked super great as well!! I was also really amazed at how composed the two of them stayed during all the farm activities.
Sudi’s lesson was fantastic! In our warm up – he was for the first time REALLY stretching over his back and beginning to lower his head. I was thrilled!! Susan advised that I need to ALWAYS have his attention – ears flicking at ALL times. Also – we’ve been assigned lots of walk/trot trot/walk transitions to develop his sensitivity to my leg. Our biggest achievement was that we got to do leg yields! (yay! – the baby’s learning!!!). In two-three weeks, he’s really started to understand what my legs are asking – it’s wonderful – like a lightbulb!! Unfortunately, Susan waited until the end of the lesson when Sudi was mentally and physically exhausted (mostly from the trailer I think), to ask for our canter work. This was particularly frustrating as I feel his canter has really come a long way. But since the rest of his lesson was particularly wonderful, I wasn’t too upset with him. Hopefully we’ll do better next time.
Well this weekend Sudi and I are going up to Full Gallop Farm to school some cross country with Tammy/Will and Jazzy/Indy. Hopefully we won’t go swimming this time! (but more to come!)
Happy New Year!!
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