Finally, an update!

Paloma came home from Steve's in mid-April. Since then, I feel that i have gotten to know the real horse, not the one that was scared, or in pain, or that I'd developed bad habits with.  She is super fun, and agile, and smart, and sweet. I am so glad I sent her to Steve.  I learned a lot too, especially about not being too structured with her and not training on her.  We do a lot of trail riding, and projects with other horses.  We went horse camping in the Sierra's last week, with Kona too, and had such a good time. She is a wonderful trail horse!http://gallery.me.com/jenniferruffolo#100078&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=20

When I rode Kona, I let Paloma go free (it was Donna's brilliant idea) and Paloma just loved it. She was happy and having fun.  We are all having fun, and now I know why I ride!

Taking a break at the top of a long climb

Working with Dave

At the end of February, Steve brought Paloma up to Winters when Dave Hillman was at Somerset for a few days. Dave worked Steve and Paloma into some projects - working a colt in the round corral and working with Emily and Del to prepare for trail riding.  Here are some photos from the project with Paloma and Del, to get the horses together before "hitting the trail" (which was an adventure down the driveway!)

Then Dave went to La Grange for a few days, and Paloma was his horse. They went trail riding and did clinics on gates and all kinds of projects. I feel very fortunate - to have both Dave and Steve working on my horse!  Paloma had some long days, but she never tires. She is the energizer pony!  Here are some pictures of Dave and Paloma.

Horse Soccer

Last week Paloma showed Steve her less-than-perfect side.  He wrote that Monday was a difficult day. She was antsy, spooking at everything, including her own shadow, terrified of the neighbor's horses, and jigged and piaffed home.  But they survived, and I think it was good for Steve to see that side of her, because until now, she's been pretty reasonable and I'm sure he was wondering why I had sent her to him. 


The next day she was still nervous, but better, and survived the ambush by the pot belly pig without taking off for the next county.

She's learning that those things just happen and she isn't going to die.  At least, that's what I hope she's learning!




The next few days they played  horse soccer,

 

 

And Paloma's learned to ground tie!

On the Road

This week Steve took Paloma out for a tour of the neighborhood. With help from her friends, she managed just fine. In fact, while her friend Pearl struggled with a muddy creek crossing, Paloma was kicking back and "having a cigarette."

First visit to Camp

I drove to La Grange today to see how Paloma's doing. She is definitely settled into her new life as a ranch horse and seems pretty happy. I helped get all the horses out in the corral, there were 5 people managing 6 or 7 horses, all charging around the outside, getting aired out. Paloma is pretty good at this, she's learning to stay away from trouble and keep in the clear. She has such fun galloping along, she really shows her thoroughbred side. And while the others were puffing away, heaving after their run, she seemed like she wasn't tired at all.
Steve rode her and I followed along on his horse, Gunnar, a nice little palomino who does everything you ask (take note Kona!). Steve showed me how he's working on her yielding, turns, walking out, trotting out and moving into the canter from a big reaching trot. She has shown him her sticky places, where she gets herself worked up and he told me how he's dealing with her, which is to manage her steps and to insist that she go forward. And over time he's giving her a little less time to deliberate about what she wants to do, instead he's expecting her to do as she's asked. It's just what she needs. and while he's riding her on a loose rein now, he'll soon start asking her for more softness and start to take a feel. but not until she gets the going forward part.
Steve said she does all her ground work and round pen work really well, so her learning needs to be under saddle. He also ground drives her, which also helps her with bit acceptance. He'll be taking her out on trail and exposing her to everything in the neighborhood, charging dogs, big tractors, sheep, etc. etc. Again, it's exactly what she needs to boost her confidence .

Paloma seems to really like Steve, and he seems to like her a lot. Paloma is turned out daily with Pearl, a little black arab mare. when Paloma comes home she's going to go into a pasture situation, to help keep her happy. I'm really looking forward to my next visit in a couple of weeks when I'll ride her...

Breakthrough??!!

Steve sent more pictures and reports from Camp.
He said that Paloma got a "C" in tying, she rarely stands still and pulled back several times. So he is working on that with a little exercise in which she gets moved over by the rope. She usually pulls back so they let go the rope on her head, and start over. Eventually she started to figure it out. I guess she got good enough to get tied to the tree for lunch - a PRIVILEGE only for horses who get gold stars on their tying!















And she and Pearl get to run! Steve says Paloma will never catch Pearl.... she must be really fast to outrun Paloma!




And last, but not at all least, Steve introduced her to the Silly Bridge. It's a teeter totter bridge.















Steve said that the Silly Bridge is also known as the Breakthrough Bridge, and once they get over it a lot of things start to come pretty quickly. I can't wait to see what happens now that she's gotten over the Breakthrough Bridge!! Steve says she's very proud of herself when she's on the bridge.

Kona's Progress

It happened! Kona got her flyng changes last night - I've been working with her for MONTHS, since our last lesson with Ellen back in May, and she finally got it! We also worked on it from the hunter/jumper approach with Noni. Although she's been getting closer and closer, it was really hard for her and she couldn't get her feet organized. She got mad, she went sideways, she'd stomp her feet and shake her head. I had pretty much concluded she couldn't do it. But last night, she jumped into the change when I wasn't really asking for it, and voila! And we did it again tonight, with a bit of help from Susan on how to set her up and to use the whip to tap as I ask for the change. Kona tried to buck, which she can't do, fortunately! and then she didn't need the tapping to tell her to switch. Now we can work on fine tuning it, making her wait for me to tell her when to do the change.
Kona always approaches these things with a "don't tell me what to do , I know how" kind of attitude. Wonder where she got that? ha ha.... but now she's figured it out and it will be so fun to use the changes in our jumping and of course, to advance to 3rd level and beyond. ALSO, she has such a wonderful trot now, with an amazing collected balanced trot and a big medium trot.
Piaffe and passage, here we come!