I've been taking advantage of the incredible weather over the last three days and got out to 'ride' each day. On the 30th, I planned on going out for a trail ride with Bekka, but Jason had another medical setback that (thankfully) only wasted half of our day. I would've loved to just stay home and watch movies, but Gali needed grain and I knew that trying to get to an Agway on New Years' Eve or New Years' Day wouldn't be an easy chore. After calling the Agway that is five minutes from my house to learn that they did not have any of his feed left, I called three other feed and grain stores in the area to learn that Legends Performance Pellet was worth gold this week. I ended up having to go all the way up to Columbus to pick up six bags, and by the time I got to the farm, I was losing daylight fast.
Bekka was out there with a few friends who really wanted to ride Gali, so I tacked him up and warmed him up before handing the lunge line over to Bekka and letting the kids have fun on the Big Comfy Couch. For my warm up he was fantastic, and he was responding so well to what I was asking him to do that I decided to back off of the dressage work and just give him some strength work. I got up into two point and both of us worked on keeping our balance without reins at the canter. I've always loved this exercise, because it really helps both of us loosen up mentally, helps him stretch down without leaning on me, and is a great core/balancing exercise for myself. We did a few laps around the ring in both directions before I handed him off. I heard later that he was amazing for both of the riders - one who can clearly handle herself on a crazy horse, and another who just likes to plod around on quarter horses all day - and I was proud of his newfound levelheadedness.
Yesterday, I went out to the farm alone, desperately needing some time away from all of the stress I've been not dealing with since Thanksgiving. When I found myself crying and singing "Hang" by Matchbox 20 at the top of my lungs, I knew that all I really needed was a good canter around the track to get it all out.
I got on and Gali reminded me why I loved him - he was on the bit from the start, stretching when I asked him to, floating in his leg yields, going deep into the usually scary corners, giving me some amazing walk to canter transitions, and not paying any attention to anyone else but me. We warmed up at all three gaits and a bit of hand gallop in each direction, and I only wanted another 15 minutes of work out of him before I planned on either walking to the lake or cantering around the track, but I got stupid. The barn owner and one of her students warned me that they were going to bring down a tree that had fallen on a shed next to the ring. For half a second I thought "Maybe I should just go out to the track", but my stupid side took over and said "Oh, cool! What a good thing to show Gali so he won't be afraid of construction!" I got off and walked him over to watch, and for the most part, he kept his cool. He was very upset when the tree branches came down one by one, but other than running around me to hide, he really behaved. I took him to the jump ring and hopped on, giving up on the goal of the track because he was on high alert, because I wanted to finish the working part of our ride. He was really wound up from the experience of watching things! happen, so I let him finish on some stretchy trot in both directions before walking him over to the barn. One of our biggest problems at the Lendon clinic was his refusal to stand still, so we spent 15 minutes standing in a relaxed halt by the barn, backing up down the bank of the track (more strength work for him) and halting by the gate to his field. I was happy with him, despite our change in plans.
Today... sucked. I went out alone, and Gali seemed to be in a really good mood while I groomed and tacked up. I took him to the ring and perched the gate in such a way that we could swing it open without dismounting, because I wanted to get out on the track after a warmup. It might have been the wind, it might have been tree anxiety, or it might have just been a combined lack of brain, but we really just didn't click today. We went through the motions, but ten minutes into the warmup I decided "F this, nothing will stop us from getting on the track today!". Ahem.
I dropped my reins to the buckle and aimed Gali for the gate for our freedom. The gate swung open with a gust of wind, and all of a sudden my horse spun and bolted away from that corner of the ring. I lost my stirrup and somehow grabbed the reins, with the whip magically turned around in my hand and waving past his eye and he flew towards the other side of the ring. I was halfway off of him from the spin, and the saddle slipped bad, and I was looking at the ground bracing myself for impact when I thought "I am NOT falling off!" and shimmied my way back onto him. I had no saddle under myself, and therefore no real leverage to get him back with an e-brake, so I just had to hope that my voice would be enough to slow him until I could actually grip my reins and bring him back. To his credit, once I got my head on straight and began to talk him down, he snapped back into it and I was able to get him to halt sooner than I expected. I hopped off to fix the saddle, and okay, because he was still shaking, still on alert, and I was shaking.
This is where I made a mistake... I didn't get back on. I chickened out, I guess. I grabbed a lunge line and lunged him by the scary door, and then played a de-spooking game where we touched tarps and lawnchairs and walked around to the usually iffy back of the barn... I thought he was okay, until we turned the corner and I realized he wasn't spooking at the tree shed, or the lawnchairs or the tarp - but a big aluminum shed with a wooden dairy door that was unhooked, and swinging into the tin with every breeze. By the time we were there, every nerve in my brain (and in Gali's) was saying "Let's just turn around and go back the other way!, but I got his focus back and walked him past it.
It really wasn't any sort of victory for me at all though. I feel defeated. How am I ever going to get him to shows when a bolt nearly unseats me, and even if it doesn't, I unseat myself?
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