Tuesday, August 7, 2007

More on Rachel and Grandma and an Arabian Horse Part 4


The Rachel and Grandma and an Arabian Horse series begins with the original post. Yesterday's post is the beginning of current happenings in the series is More on Rachel and Grandma and an Arabian Horse

Because Rachel's riding has gone downhill over the past few months while Dandy was laid up, I decided that the best way to help her recover was to control her riding the Arabian horse as much as possible. So Rachel has been instructed she is not to ride the horse unless I am there to monitor how it is going and help where needed.

Crystal has other horses that Rachel is free to ride when I am not there. This will help her build up her strength and experience level without teaching Dandy any bad habits, like being long and ignoring Rachel's legs. With my supervision I can assure the horse continues to only have Rachel riding him in a collected manor.

To further this along I always school the horse first before Rachel rides. I warm the Arabian horse up and get him moving correctly before I ever turn the horse over to her. Each day he gets closer and closer to going the way he was before the injury. It's really too bad we didn't make it to Youth Nationals this year, the horse is doing awesome.

The very first day with these exercises were difficult ones. Rachel shed a few tears in her frustration and I'm not so sure Dandy, the Arabian horse, wouldn't have shed tears if it were possible. But eventually, it did all come together and both were relieved to be done with it.



On the second day, we picked up where we left off. I sent Rachel riding back into the corner to show me what she'd learned in the exercises. Once she was completing them correctly, I changed them up a little.

At random times I sent her off around me in a larger circle to see if she could hold the horse together giving her instructions on how to use the exercises she'd learned to keep him in frame and then sent her right back into the smaller figure eight to help her keep him together.


Changing up between the figure eight and the large circle, I used the big circle to ask her to lope. I instructed her to ask the Arabian horse to move to the outside and then ask him to lope. The result was as pretty a lope departure as that horse has ever given anyone.

Rachel and Dandy still have some work to do before the end of the week. That is for sure but Rachel has never ever ridden the Arabian horse as collected as he is going for her right now. Dandy and Rachel are definitely headed to the show and, of course, that is with Grandma in tow.

To be continued...............




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9 comments:

  1. Hurrah to the show! I love your blog, you're so knowledgable and your horses are amazing.

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  2. I'm learning so much! Thanks for such detailed blog entries!!

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  3. I wish you were here to do lessons for this middle aged balanceless (is that a word?) horse woman!! I love your knowledge and also have been reading the story of your daughter's brain tumor. Amazing story of her survival, God bless her AND you! We are still fighting the battle of laminitis with my old horse Buddy. Any suggestions????? He's coming along but it sure is slow and at his age 26 I wonder if he ever will be the same again. Need to put you on my Favorites list but with my new template I don't know how! grrrrrrr! Keep up the great writing!

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  4. Hello again! Thank you for visiting my blog. Yes, it is nice to have a neighbor who puts up hay. But as to round bales, no, I avoid them like the plague. People feed their horses with them, but they get full of mold and can make horses sick. I just got a few square bales because I'm hoping this winter my horses can just graze again. My Arabian cross has metabolic disorder and isn't allowed to graze but occasionally just before I ride him. Otherwise he wears a grazing muzzle. So I feed hay more in the summer to him, and they graze on winter grass. I enjoy your blog. Gotta love those Ay-rabs. They totally spoil you. Hey, I'll be posting some pictures soon of a barrel race I went to. No, I don't do barrels, as I am Miss Classical Dressage, but it gives us something to do and somewhere to go. Blessings, kb

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  5. Thank you for leaving a comment on my blog. Love your horses..!

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  6. I'm enjoying reading about a world I know nothing about, the world of horses. Your descriptions help me to really understand what is involved in training and preparing a horse for competitions.

    And thanks for visiting Yesterday's Memories, too!!

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  7. Hi... ty for your visit

    I am not a horsewoman but I do love THEM!

    I browsed a bit here... postings of Barbaro, Ruffian.

    Someday I will come across someone who can answer this question for me or one day I will find it posted on the internet...
    a few days after Ruffian died.... I believe it was Jim McKay, the sports broadcaster. He was on air, telling in the most eloquent way, what Ruffian had meant to us. I remember being so moved by his words....but failed to hold them in my mind even though I have kept them in my heart.

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  8. this is such a wonderful series...I miss riding so much. its nice to follow along with this!

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  9. I am so glad it is all coming together for Dandy and Rachel and look forward to hearing how it goes this weekend!!!

    ((((Hugs)))) and will be thinking of you all.

    Lori
    xx

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