Rodeo Girl

Yep, this space has been a little neglected, but then so has my horse. I've been home but for a bunch of different reasons, my days haven't included actually making it to the barn to ride. I did sneak out on Friday to get in a little ride. Snuck because I was home on sick with a migraine. It started to let go its hold on my poor head in the afternoon so out to the barn I went.

If you've never had a migraine, you're a truly lucky soul, and you probably don't know that the aftermath of a migraine shares some similarities with the aftermath of too much alcohol. Not the best state to try to ride in. I promised my husband not to ride if I felt too woozy, but darn it once you're tacked up you practically HAVE to ride. I actually did feel okay and Megan was very quiet on the lunge so up I went. The butterfly meter was zero, she's proven to be very cool with being hopped onto and stands quietly.

Into the arena we went and worked on turning at the walk. 10 meter circles and figures of eight at x (the center of the arena) while I chatted with one of the other boarders. Cindy was impressed with how well Megan was doing and we were talking about that -- tempting the fates we were. Two ENORMOUS houses are being built behind our barn and there's fairly regular construction traffic. Now that traffic goes right by Megan's paddock day in and day out so it's not like she isn't exposed to it.

Up drives a truck hauling a utility trailer with a pack of lumber on it and off goes Megan. I'm a little irritated by this, but she is consistently afraid of trucks pulling things. I think that's lame since she isn't afraid of the freakin' train that comes by hourly or the darn pidgeons making a racket on the top of the indoor roof. Heck, the pidgeons make me jump half the time. Anyway, it's her thing and up comes her head and off she bolts and then once again starts bucking. Argh. Her head goes between her knees and up comes her butt. I rode her out and fussed at her to stop it, but I'm really irritated that she throws the bucks in. That's more of a disobedience than a spook and I've got to work on a game plan to get this out of her bag of tricks. So far I've just been working on getting her stopped and then going back to work, but I do think she needs to go straight to work by getting her head up and booting her forward.

The weekend got away from me so I didn't get a crack at dealing with it in a more agressive fashion. Still have that to look forward to... sigh. Why did I want a baby horse? This to shall pass right?!?