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Dec. 16th, 2011 03:44 pmThe cold west wind was sounding like a freight train last night, knocking the trees around and howling around the edges of the house.
It was still blowing when I got to the barn. Kaboose is still behaving well - J said she'd jumped around a little when she was turned out, but had been demure enough on the lead line.
The woman who rides another barn horse said she liked Kaboose's face, and admired the cowlick well below her eyes. She said it might be superstition, but in her experience, lower cowlicks meant a calmer, saner horse, while those with higher cowlicks were more high spirited. And those with two, she says, are impish. She mentioned as data points the safest beginner horse in the barn, with a cowlick just above his noseband, and the mare she rides, with two, set high. I hadn't heard any of this before.
I lunged her before sitting on her, and glad I did. She was fine-fine-fine-OMG!!! with all four feet off the ground, as well as the vertical tail and loud snorting. I was just as pleased to be on the ground for that. Once I got on her she was great. We did a lot of leg yielding, working on Tuesday's lesson of Get it and Get Out. (also known as Don't Be Greedy) and some canter departs and circles - all in the outside ring. The indoor is small, and we will be there soon enough; it seems like a bad idea to get too comfortable in it when there is still usable footing outside.
To cool out we walked all over the place again, this time on a longer rein. She was looking around, thinking about things. Although every time I put my left hand in my pocket she thinks something yummy is going to come out of it, and she stops dead and cranks her head around to look at me and beg. I'll have to break that behaviour quick.
It was still blowing when I got to the barn. Kaboose is still behaving well - J said she'd jumped around a little when she was turned out, but had been demure enough on the lead line.
The woman who rides another barn horse said she liked Kaboose's face, and admired the cowlick well below her eyes. She said it might be superstition, but in her experience, lower cowlicks meant a calmer, saner horse, while those with higher cowlicks were more high spirited. And those with two, she says, are impish. She mentioned as data points the safest beginner horse in the barn, with a cowlick just above his noseband, and the mare she rides, with two, set high. I hadn't heard any of this before.
I lunged her before sitting on her, and glad I did. She was fine-fine-fine-OMG!!! with all four feet off the ground, as well as the vertical tail and loud snorting. I was just as pleased to be on the ground for that. Once I got on her she was great. We did a lot of leg yielding, working on Tuesday's lesson of Get it and Get Out. (also known as Don't Be Greedy) and some canter departs and circles - all in the outside ring. The indoor is small, and we will be there soon enough; it seems like a bad idea to get too comfortable in it when there is still usable footing outside.
To cool out we walked all over the place again, this time on a longer rein. She was looking around, thinking about things. Although every time I put my left hand in my pocket she thinks something yummy is going to come out of it, and she stops dead and cranks her head around to look at me and beg. I'll have to break that behaviour quick.