Training Continues

With the warm weather of December, and continuing on into January, it is time to start the training of Alpine again. Besides being overweight and herd bound, she was starting to exhibit some disrespectful attitude, like turning her butt towards me. Unfortunately, in one way, the warm weather has meant that the roads etc are too icy for riding. However, on the other hand, the problems need to be addressed on the ground first, before getting into the saddle. I am getting old enough to not enjoy the healing process very much anymore. Now, that is an old thought, and I should not be having those!

So, it started yesterday. Brush her down and turn her loose in the paddock, followed by 20 minutes of moving her around with a swinging rope and no lunge line. After the 20 minutes, her ears were on me, she stopped and started chewing, IE. thinking. I turned my back and waited and she hooked up to me and put her head on my shoulder. She then followed me to the gate where I hooked her up to the lead line and took her for  a half mile walk. She was as good as gold with no attempt to go back to her herd.

Today, I figured on doing the same thing to Biz, who also had the above symptoms. Instead, Alpine came up to me and nuzzled the halter. So off we went. I brushed her, moved her around the paddock until she hooked up, then we went for a one mile walk, both of us. Again, she was extremely well behaved. She didn't spook when 4 of the neighbours horses came running up to the fence, nor did she spook (other than laugh) when I slipped on the ice and went down.

A real bonus occurred when two kids came up on two VERY loud snow machines, you know, the kind with a large engine, but very small muffler. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt by suggesting that there may be a muffler involved somewhere. She didn't like it at all, went to high alert (Defcon3), but did not try to run. The kids were good, they slowed down and went by real slow before hitting the throttle again.

Tomorrow, I may throw a saddle on her in the upper field where there is some snow and good traction.

I will also find out who is hurting the most, me or her. This is the part that I like, training or retaining a horse. Maybe I should look for a young filly in the spring. Nope, bad thought as Elaine said "No more animals". I guess that I should work with what I've got and be thankful for the blessings that the Lord has given us!