The Bitch Barn

I’ve been doing dressage lessons on a Percheron to piss off my farmer ancestors that bred Percherons for farm work.

I’ve been also riding saddle seat but we won’t talk about that because my riding is shit.

Also, my favorite horse died from intestinal cancer and I wanted sell all of my horses and off myself when it happened.

But good news! I didn’t! (yet)

Please laugh with me about that and appreciate my dark humor. I don’t need another intervention. I promise :)

and a tiny baby head

We worked on leads today. She’s a genius who makes training super easy. Next Thursday we haul to a different barn so the horses can see news sights and get comfortable in new settings.

One bad ride ≠ one bad horse/rider.

I decided to put her in a bit that’s primarily used in English riding. It’s a loop ring gag with a French link mouthpiece. I decided she probably was not a fan of the nutcracker action in the mouthpieces others had on her and after trying her my hand Dutton teardrop dogbone snaffle, I felt like my thesis was correct. However, I was not a fan of how stiff she was in that bit and figured a soft gag loosen her up. Again, I was correct; she was very soft and fluid today through her movements and when I put her on barrels, I was able to ask for arc and counter arc without any problems in communication.

My next step is learning how to get her to lift herself when asked and bring her hind end underneath her sooner when asked to disengage and cross over. I still have a lot of work in front of me, I think we will be trying multiple bits to see what the perfect fit is. I think for everyday use.

I’m still not working on great ground, my arena is overgrown so I’m in the fields. Since ground is not great, we are only trotting and jogging when doing barrel work. I think this turtle’s pace is quite fun. She is picking up a nice jog, I wonder if she would like to do some pleasure classes for fun next season.

Her stop is becoming so beautiful. She has now learned when I stop riding and sit, to do a jump stop. She is a little sponge. It won’t take long before we have a really nice, healthy, safe stop on her from higher speeds. I think having a safe stop on a speed horse is more important than having speed first. I’ve seen too many horses that have ran into gates or fell down at the end of their run because they have no brakes. Although a jump stop isn’t something I want to ask for on a regular basis, it’s nice to make certain a speed horse has that. Her progress with the stop is nearly entirely her own.