A Good Day

Hi everyone! Today was a day of new experiences! We started at one of the Ranches this morning at 8:45 and today we each got to work on our own horse... so everyone got to have a horse to work on, instead of working in pairs and having one person hold the rope while the other worked! This was a very welcomed new experience and I got to work on Linda (the horse that I rode yesterday!) It was interesting because when I was riding her I could tell that she was a little hesitant on her right side, like she was "sore;" I use that work in quotes because Sara tells us not to use it because to an owner this would not be a very happy thing.. too think that your horse is "sore" and that you may have made them that way is kind of a heavy feeling, so using stiff would be a better choice.

We each worked with one horse for just under 1 hour and then we had a break and switched, the second horse that I worked on today, I didn't know his name; he was very gentle and forgiving.

I had a sort of revelation when I was working on him; when working the neck (as we have been taught) I was so into the attempt to get the action I was asking for from the horse that I was actually tensing up my left hand (which was on his neck asking for the bend at a particular place... kind of hard to explain). I was having no luck getting the action I was looking for so I moved on to the hind end and a little more of the shoulder and then returned to the neck to try again. This time when I placed my left hand on the neck and my right hand on the front of the face (about where the halter crosses) I realized that when I asked for the horse to come around to me I was actually pushing with my left hand instead of letting him come to me and just following me!!! Once I relaxed that hand and let it follow his movement he was able to give his head to me and respond to my "question," what a good sport for putting up with me... he was probably wondering when I would figure it out!

This afternoon in Anatomy we got the opportuinty to go back to the Ranch and "palpate" the horses for bony landmarks and muscle placement. This was really fun, though the sun had seemed to dissapear and it was quite cold. We were allowed to leave at 4:30 instead of 5 because we were finished finding things on the horses and because we were all extremely cold, a thick wind had blown in and it was very chilly!!!

Anyhow, because we all had horses today I didn't have anyone to take pictures of me so they will have to wait until tomorrow when we are working on the polo horses!!! This should be another new and interesting experience!!

Talk to you all tomorrow~

Ciao Bella