Fear Issues - Part 2

Monday I did not go to the barn. Tuesday was absolutely gorgeous so I long lined Secret in the outdoor arena. She loved it, the sun was shining and she was spectacular in lines. That is one really athletic horse and I was wicked excited when I left the barn. But I knew we had a really tough ride coming up and I was not particularly looking forward to it.

On Wednesday I went to the barn in the morning, knowing I would be alone. I wanted to ride alone so that Secret would have to focus on me and there would be nothing (besides the fear) to distract her and no one who could "save" her. Mother nature did not cooperate and gave me high winds that were blowing the side of the indoor open several inches and then slamming the plastic back down onto the wood frame. This increased Secret's fear factor several notches.

Secret was loaded for bear as soon as we walked through the door. I turned on the radio in the indoor. I thought the white noise might help. The first station I found sounded okay but a rap song came on and when they changed singers to a guy with a deep voice Secret lost it. I put on a different station and that was a bit better. I hand walked her around the perimeter of the indoor several times. She never relaxed but she stopped trying to leap in my pocket so I mounted.

The first ten minutes were awful. I was pretty focused on the task at hand but a couple of times I found my mind wandering. My thoughts were, "Is this really worth it? I could just take her home and bring Killarney or Remi over, they won't care about the noise in the indoor." I quickly re-focused and kept riding. A strong inside leg and a steady outside rein and slowly, ever so slowly, Secret started getting closer to the scary corner. By the end of the ride she could get around the arena both ways, do circles in the scary corner and whatever else I asked. She was still scared but she did it. When I dismounted I hand walked her around the perimeter of the indoor again but it still took a lot of work to get her to walk next to me. Ground work is supposed to make the saddle work better but I felt our saddle work was a lot stronger than anything I had done with her on the ground.