So far, the new semester has gone well. It was off to a really good start on lovely Barka (alas, she’s now resting, having strained herself coming off the summer grazing with a bit much extra weight), and then I had some great dressage lesson on Nelson and Blacky and a very good round of jumping on Nelson. He’s really become very co-operative and fun to ride.
Which brings me to my last lesson, on Mynta the Fjordhorse. She is very much a Fjordhorse and a mare, which means she isn’t terribly interested in co-operating with anyone. In particular, she tends to try and avoid any and all work by just steaming on like a little locomotive. With a short, square neck, she ends up putting a lot of strain on my arms if I end up in a tug-of-war with her. And, of course, a tug-of-war with a horse is a pretty pointless activity.
When I’ve ridden her in the past, for various instructors, I’ve had different suggestions. Some want her packaged together, to get her to accept that she can’t just go at her own speed. Some have suggested lots of circling and over-bending to try and get through to her incredibly stiff right side and her somewhat less stiff left side.
None of this has really worked well for me so far. She clearly gets stressed if you ask too much, which isn’t strange given that physically speaking, she must choke herself a bit if she brings her head in. So, trying to pack her together isn’t going to work, except possibly at a walk, where she does wait and listen a bit more.
But there’s also the just plain stubborn side of her to consider. She is a Fjordhorse and she is a mare. That’s a combination that leads to a pretty darn independent horse. So far, I am not getting through to her with either polite requests or firm demands, so the lessons do end up being rather more confrontational than I like. I don’t mind a stubborn pony that cleverly tries to get out of work in all sorts of ways, that’s just stimulating, but “run-run-run” gets tedious.