Day Ten: Expanding Her World

A little schnoodling during a ride never hurt nobody!

It has been ten whole days since Polly arrived at my farm! I actually can't believe how fast it has gone, she feels like a part of the family already. I've been working her a little bit every day, only for about fifteen minutes at a time. I spend a lot of time grooming her and working with her on the ground, but her strength and fitness are pretty low, so I don't want to physically push her beyond what she can offer. Because she is going from no work at all to working every day, I want to keep every session fun so that she feels like everything is easily accomplished. She's got a great work ethic, and I don't want to spoil that in any way. 

She's gotten much better about coming out of the stall and standing still for her grooming and tacking. Initially, she was a little fidgety, but she's learned that getting curried, combed and brushed is pleasant! She ties well both plain and in the cross ties, and just hangs out. I'm teaching her about lateral movements in the easiest way possible, by starting on the ground. When I ride, I'm going to need her to yield to my leg, for turning, for opening and closing gates, and for various other things. So I use my hand or my finger in the same place where my leg would be, and start her education that way when she's standing in the aisle for grooming. I also do that in the stall when I'm cleaning it, and she's starting to get it. In the beginning, she would get a little grumpy, "Why are you poking me!?" but now she just steps over and looks at me like, "Is that the right answer?"

This week, we started working on her understanding of the contact, which, accordingly with her previous career as a racehorse, is tenuous at best. I worked as an exercise rider for a few years, and it helped me understand how to ride thoroughbreds after they race much better. They are frequently very crooked, and are only taught to lean on the bit instead of soften and carry themselves. When you are galloping them, you teach them to use your hands to balance themselves, and in fact a horse that increases speed into the contact is somewhat desirable. Obviously, this is pretty much opposite of any other career, and so there is some re-educating to be done!

She is only walking and trotting still, because she isn't quite strong enough to canter in a coordinated way, but we are successfully coming into a frame in the walk, and sometimes at the trot. She is a bit crooked, tending to go around with her head bent to the right all the time, so I am working on her ability to bend around my left leg, effectively stretching out the right side of her body a little more. She doesn't totally get it, but she tries so hard, she will soon!

Today, we went on our first off property exploration! I have been keeping her mainly in the arena and going on walks around the farm, but she has not cared about a single thing yet, so I figured we could step it up a little. I live on a great dirt road, and it has a lot to offer. It's mostly quiet, but there are cars, trucks, farm equipment, joggers, bikers, people walking dogs etc that frequently appear. A good way to get exposure to all sorts of weird things while still being in a fairly quiet environment. Another bonus is that the land around me is very open and horse friendly, with over 2,000 acres in conservation easement with trails, gates, jumps and all open for me to ride on!

So Polly and I went on a little hack a short way down the road. She didn't blink an eye when the cars went by us, we had a dog freak out and bark at us from behind an invisible fence (which she totally ignored) and we went to check out the neighboring cows!

I'm not sure if Polly has ever seen cows, but it's a good skill to have. If she is going to ever have a career that involves hunting, going on hunter paces, or even going to local shows, she's going to have to see cows and keep her head on! There are a lot of horses that have permanent cow fear, especially thoroughbreds, so I wanted to get this out of the way. She certainly stared at them as we approached, but while she stopped and gawked, she never spooked, spun, or panicked. She went forwards towards them when I asked, and when we got close, she didn't care at all. One of them came particularly close to us, and she just looked at her with benign interest. 

The whole point of all this piddling around is that I think Polly should get more out of this trainer's challenge than just the ability to complete the competition. I want to prepare her as best I can for any career, and for any rider. So, I'm not just focusing on pool noodles and walking over tarps (although that will come!), but riding her in the same way I would any other horse in training. I also think that slow and steady work will eventually come to more fruition than throwing a ton of stuff at her really quickly. When her muscles catch up from walking up and down the hills in her paddock, she'll be all ready to attack some more serious work. Until next time!