Thursday, September 11, 2008

A short, hard play session

I had a little time, FINALLY, to get some horse time. I had big plans thinking I'd have lots of time today and it all fell apart. My life teaches me to be flexible, but sometimes I still get so irritated when my plans fall apart. I'm learning that my horse time needs to come first with my new job. With most of my co-workers on Pacific time, horse play in the afternoon is less likely. However, nothing seems to be happening before 10 am so I need to shift my day. I've been in a routine of getting up, catching any "hot" items at work, then feeding horses, then focusing on work until the afternoon. It's amazing how hard it is for me to consider getting horse time in the morning after years of this other routine! I'm not a morning person. Alas, I have goals and have to flex to reach them. Oye.

So, back to the session. We did some ground work, loaded in the trailer a few times (without any emotion or poop!) and then I mounted for some riding. We herded Gemini and Rain a bit, we herded some dogs, but Z just didn't seem very enthused. She was going along, but not interested. I had to pause for work in the middle of the session which did NOT help. I finally went back out for more and she wouldn't leave the barn area. Of course, I could have forced her but that's not what natural horsemanship is about. So we rode around by the barn working on sideways, bending, canter departing. We rode around the round pen, jumped the kayak and balanced on the teeter-totter. It wasn't very fun for either of us. She would do things, but she wasn't a happy, willing partner. I was irritated and Kendall called for me to make her some dinner.

It was a bad place to leave Z, but I felt like I'd hit a wall. So, I went ahead and called it a day.

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