I am slowly coming to grips with the above statement. I mean logically I know this. Really I do. But somehow I had it in my head that my journey with Miss Ruffles was going to be similar to my journey with Bacardi and that is NOT the case.
I am still not really over my fear of the mare under saddle first of all. I will admit when I first started riding Bacardi at home, he had a few antics that made me fearful, but he A) either grew out of them or B) I got more comfortable with him. Second of all, she just has a completely different brain. Which again, should be logically obvious.
I had a good friend of mine who I trust implicitly get on Ruffi the other night and she had a lot to say about her and gave me quite a bit to think about. Things I never thought about with Bacardi. She suggested ground driving, doing lead line rides with her and generally just putting more miles on her.
Additioinally, I reached out to Jen to try and ascertain just how much education I was dealing with. From what I gathered here is what I am working with:
- Ruffles has had about 90 rides on her. Total
- She is unpredictable. Not in a bad way, just in an uneducated way. And THAT is why she scares me
- She has very little body awareness
- She is very sensitive.
- I still dont have a saddle she is super comfortable in.
So going forward this is my plan. I am going to have Preston get more involved in her training. He is going to start ground driving her. The reason I don’t want to ground drive her is that I am a short, fat girl and keeping up with a horse even at the walk is HARD for me. I am also looking into buying a new saddle for her. I have one in my barn that I have my eye on and fits her well, its just in need of a test ride to determine it it fits ME.
I also really just need to ride her more. And to get me more comfortable, I need to have someone just walk with us so that I can have a little more security in confidence until I can make my own.
In other pony news, Bacardi and I went out on a trail ride with my brother and my barn bestie. All three geldings were fairly good with some high strung antics. Nobody fell off and we had a pretty nice canter session while on the trail. Bacardi and I also took advantage of the MASSIVE lake-like puddles and did a little XC “training” and cantered through the water. He did GREAT. I am very pleased and have some hopes for this boy.
I am also looking to bring in a new trainer after the first of the year for Bacardi and I so we can start to improve and have a little more guidance.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas (if you celebrate) and a generally good holiday season (COVID aside) and I hope for positive things for all of you in the new year!
Happy Riding
A+B+R