Bad news everyone. This is gonna get ugly. I worked with her today, got her flexing reasonably well, got her to understand “turn and walk that way” in lunging. But then I tried to get her to trot. She kicked me and ran away. I know of no other fix to that kind of behavior other than practicing. It might have to wait until my handy stick gets here, I’m not that great with a lunge whip.
So I asked the owner of the horses at therapy if I could use one of them. Pepper is my charge. She is approximately 14.2 hands tall and a leopard spot appaloosa, hence her name. She is resentful towards human beings and show it by biting. I have to tell her owner that to fix her biting issue I need to move her feet as much as possible, and that she needs to get sweaty and she might resist and it might get ugly. I hope he will understand. I will still go through all the steps even more thoroughly than I would normally to make sure that it is as easy as possible for her. I think I might refine the movements to two steps four times instead of just the basic concept check of one step four times.
Anyway, she picked up the concept to yielding the hindquarters and backing up one method in the first lesson, leading me to believe that she has had at least some correct training in the past. I do hope that I can get Pepper going well even with the interventions of a stereotypical Texan rider, even if she isn’t Texan. 15 minutes of walking is nothing but a teaser for Pepper! She needs hard work to make her feel used now. Good, hard, work.
Well I bought a lead rope and handy stick off of amazon so that I can begin some super work. I still have to work her forequarters and ensure that she knows that. It seems to be the first thing that she doesn’t know, really. Or she does and she’s just disrespecting me.
