Traum und Pferde

[lantairvlea]

Had a dream that involved clevortrevor using spectacularly dressed and posed mannequins to illustrate her stories. One was dressed as a viking lady warrior sitting sassily aside on a horse. I can't quite remember the context, but I have the vague thought it was supposedly illustrating the attitude of a coworker.

Yesterday I tried ponying Bella off of Tru-D again. It wasn't as bad as the first time, but since Tru-D wasn't in heat she did not want Bella in her space. I had to take a break and we did some slightly angry trot and canter circles until she settled out. It was awful, but good at the same time. She needs more concentrated rides like that from me, but I don't like feeling argumentative. The hardest part was getting her to STAND while Bella tried to catch up. We did finally end up with some good moments and I was able to move Bella round without Tru-D trying to be aggressively negatively social (strike, kick, or snap at).

Bella goes home tomorrow, though possibly Sunday if the person with the trailer has a flight delay.

Art Fight starts officially tomorrow. I admit I was a little disapointed by the team selection being Vampires and Werewolves, primarily because I'm very much not a vampire person and a couple of the people I was hoping to attack (i.e. drawing art for them) are also very much not vampire people, alas. I'll survive.

My goal this year will also be four attacks (essentially one a week). I may see about doing some "friendly fire" after I get the four done, not sure, we'll see!

I was getting into the spirit of it and filled out the ID deal. Click for full size per usual.



Ended up taking a nearly three hour nap today. Was not intending that, but I apparently needed it.

Comments

[gottawonder]

Tru-D sounds kinda hostile. Is it just towards this one other horse, or in general? I know some horses are just like that.

Love the art!

[lantairvlea]

She can vascillate. I often describe her as being between Kitt and Chewy. Kitt, with students, can get grumpy with other horses if she feels like the human isn't the one in charge. She's a natural Bossy Boss and a bit of a bully. However under a confident, communicative rider she does fine ponying and mostly ignores other horses. Chewy pretty much just yields to everyone and tries to get along. I get the feeling that Tru-D's aggressiveness with Bella was her feeling like she didn't have the option to yield and with Bella being pushy she felt like she had to defend herself. I did eventually get it done well enough, but it is definitely a skill she needs more work with and I'd love to try and get her on some cows with the place down the road that does sorting when it cools down a bit again.

Thank you! I've been enjoying it.

[gottawonder]

I once knew a horse/rider combo, where the horse was just a mess. He was always worked up with his owner, pushing her all over the place, super aggressive in the corral with the other horses, all over the place in the arena.

Our barn trainer (at the other barn) rode him, and said he was actually quite a nice horse to ride.

A lot of his issues stemmed from his owner/rider being a person dealing with a lot of badly healed injuries that left her not very strong or balanced, and she didn't do a good job of being consistent with her boundaries.

I think all of that left him feeling like he had no idea what was expected of him, that his rider could not be in charge, thus super confused and nervous.

He was a super dick jerk in the corral, but likely because there were too many horses in there and not enough room for him to exercise.

All of it was a bad situation for him.

As to Tru-D and Bella, not all horses are great being ponied/ponying. It can be disconcerting. I think it does mess with their understanding of hierarchies.

[lantairvlea]

I think they can eventually figure it out, like driving a pair, it's a job and the task at hand and they learn to work it together and listen to the person rather than trying to just do their own thing