Lisa Trowse said Fast Track Week 4 Day 18 - Jack is such a funny one. He came out of the right brain side of the stable today. Head high and surveying every scene we came across. I had to keep distracting him to get his head down and listening! With that it was a long day.
Firstly we had to sit our theory test. I think it went well. They have set us up for success so fingers crossed. We then spent some more time in the classroom after the exam to make us think about where we want to go on our journey and give us some leadership strategies from within ourselves that we would like to take with us when we leave.
Jack was still RBE when we came into the playground. He spotted that by the bridge there were some changes. Those being I had placed my saddle and stuff there. He noticed it about 100 yards away and grew ten foot high and started snorting. Great opportunity to work on my approach and retreat so I used a combination of falling leaf to move him away when he got unconfident and s pattern to move him slowly closer. It was interesting to see him come down off his adrenalin. We did some really nice stuff online, great at maintaining gait in canter now.
Then we went into the round pen and did some fantastic liberty. Stick to me in 3 gaits and back up. He is now getting the spin more consistently. Good squeeze too. By the end of the session he had to process for ages and he was licking and chewing and yawning for about ten minutes. It was huge so I sat on the ground and he put his head near my lap as he let it all out!
This afternoon we had another team exercise on the precision pen. Much more organised today but didn't beat our last time...now did that happen? This afternoon I had planned to ride but Jack had different ideas. We started well, and then I put him on the 45ft rope. Got a couple of lovely canter circles and then BHAM. He went really RBE. Bucking, snorting, spinning, changing directions, rearing up. Good practice on the old power position, but at times my 45 just didn't seem to have enough drift!!!!!!!! I tried to really throw some energy down the line which would stop him for a second or two and then he would shoot off again at full gallop. I tried getting him to jump the log, but that was small fry. He went down once when his back legs slid out from under him too, but that didn't deter. One of the instructors noticed I was having just a little trouble. I needed to get him into the falling leaf pattern, but i had a dilemma that I needed a shorter rope to be effective but he was not controlled enough to be close to me as with his direction changes tip was conscious of too much rope. Anyway, we got there and slowly but surely he came down off his adrenalin enough for me to give him some focus on a task once I had his mind again.
We played some nice stuff on the pedestal. Some good squeeze over the logs into the honeycomb, and then did some more lovely liberty but not quite up to this mornings standard, my draw was lacking. Every bone in my body aches and my joints have been slightly stretched!
I almost forgot to mention we also had our tool assessments. My knots were fine :0) except my barn knot at which point the easiest and one I do daily, I completely fluffed by not leaving enough room to hang my rope through. I just had to laugh and said that my halter had been shrunk! 45ft line was ok ish. Definitely a huge improvement from the first lot of assessments!!
Well savvy assessments tomorrow, big day, and with my special little orange horse I have absolutely no assumptions and will only do my best with what we have on the day, because it isn't about how high we score, it is about how much we have learned to use the best strategies to get success and mostly to keep that relationship where it needs to be. Not to mention enjoy it, as we have had such a huge opportunity to learn and grow over the last month.
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