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Palomino Quarter horse mare Blondie is my shy girl. When I got her in May of 2001 she was a very nervous horse. It took her a long time to settle down until I started round penning her. Now she is generally just a sensitive mare, but doesn't get nervous very often - and the change took place nearly overnight. The first thing everyone notices about her is her eyes - they're an uncommon amber with a touch of blue. February 20, 2004: I'm a bit in shock as I just realized that I have had Blondie almost 3 years. I would also say that the bond I have with her (and with Pepsi) has really developed in the last month. Both horses come running to me when I get to the barn and call them. Then, they both nicker to me when I come to get them from their pasture. I'm really enjoying working with them both so much now. In the last couple weeks, I've been fine tuning Blondie's round penning ability, which is in turn helping her strengthen her muscles. Specifically, I am working on establishing both inside and outside turns. When I first worked with her in a roundpen, I only taught inside turns. Then I started incorporating outside turns, but in doing that I partially lost my inside turns. I've also been riding her - bareback - as I discovered that my dressage saddle is too narrow for her. My lessons with her are lasting about 45 minutes between ground work and riding. In all the work I do with her I am very much aware of her sensitivity. I 'ask' her much more than I would with Pepsi, and give her more chances to try to give me the correct response. Clearly, whatever she's gone through in the past was not pleasant because if she's pushed too much (it doesn't take much!) she will blow up. June 5, 2004: I am really pleased with the progress Blondie has made in the last month. I have been asking her to give to the bit, flex her neck, and to move forward with a bend in her body. It might not sound like much, but she has always wanted to travel inverted and counterbent. So for her this is a new way of moving. Blondie's breakthrough moment came about after the riding clinic that we had at the barn on May 1st and 2nd. What I realized during the clinic was the absolute importance of the horse bending and giving to the bit. I realized that this was more important than being able to walk, trot, and canter my horse (although I can W/T/C Blondie). I took my focus back to these things by asking Blondie to give to the bit and flex her neck around until her nose was almost at the girth. Then I started asking her to bend her body as we traveled in a circle. This meant she had to bend with the circle, not travel in her usual counterbent manner. It took about a week of practice before I really felt like she was getting it. After a month she is traveling much more nicely. She is less inverted and counterbent, although she still has her moments! Retraining her is a time consuming process - her muscles need time to adjust to this new way of moving. As she spends more time carrying herself properly, the new muscles develop and she is reaching further under herself with her back legs, and tending to lift her back more.
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