Keeping things real
I got an important reminder the other day. Spice had been being relly crabby for the past few days, so I took her out to her former owner’s house for the day. I thought maybe he could give me some pointers about what was making her unhappy. He didn’t do what I had expected. He didn’t put me in the arena and tell me to change things, or longe her in circles, or anything like that. He saddled up another mare he is training and we headed out to move his cows to a new grazing area. Basically I’ve been boring Spice and I needed to get her out of the arena, stop training on her, and just do something fun and mentally stimulating. We spent a few hours driving the cows up and down steep hills until they reached their new grazing. Since then, Spice’s attitude has been 100% better. And you know what else? I had more fun then I’ve had an a long time, too! It’s so important to remember that you need to get out and do things with your horse, not just spend every day in the ring training, training, training. It will do you and your horse a world of good.
