Instant Results

We live in a world of instant results. You can even get Campbell's soup in instant travel containers now. Soup on the go and in the car. Sometimes it is hard to remember that everything in life is not instant. After paying your bills, catching up with a high school friend or any other multitude of things with the click of a button it can be hard to swallow this fact.

Horses do not always yield instant results.

A week ago, three of us were tacking up our horses to ride at the same time. Jen headed to the indoor first but came back after about ten minutes.

"Done already?"

No, she was not done. Her horse was in the mood to rear so Jen got off and decided she had better do a little ground work. While Becca and I rode Jen lunged her horse in side reins, trotting him over ground poles and all sorts of other stuff. He was stunningly beautiful. When Jen finished working her gelding she was hand walking him and we were talking about ground work and how beneficial it is. Jen made an excellent point that really hit home for me (and I am not quoting exactly but you get the general idea).

"I know ground work is great for horses and improves your work under saddle but I really just want to ride. Today I was forced to do ground work but I am glad I did. I was able to see that my horse really can do all of these things and do them well. I am going to start forcing myself to do ground work more often it will be good for both of us."

After a couple of mediocre rides last week I spent some time contemplating this conversation. I gave Secret three days off (two intentional and one extra because life got in the way). And then yesterday, I longed her in side reins. We did the ground poles once but it wound her up. I will add those in another time. It was nice to see that she tunes me out just as well on a longe line as she does when I am riding her. We worked on transitions and voice commands. When she finally slowed down and pulled herself together she was lovely.

I rode today. The first half of the ride was much better. Her trot work was slower with more rhythm. She did not get heavy on the forehand and bending came easier. Then I asked for the canter and the quality deteriorated a bit. Canter always exposes the weaknesses in Secret's training. After some good canter both directions we went back to trot work. It was not as good as the beginning, but it was okay. I will definitely be putting her back into bitting tack to let her work on the canter without me.

I get frustrated when we have "mediocre" rides. Or rides that deteriorate after the canter because that does not always happen. When I get frustrated I have to remind myself of where Secret and I started six months ago with her training.

Whoa. We really have come a long way. Back off, the horse cannot change overnight or with the click of a button. Maybe the ride was not so mediocre after all.