I'm getting so excited for winter break! I can't wait to have nearly twenty days off to make up for the hectic business that my life is now. I haven't ridden Malachi in about a week, and this week isn't looking too good either. I've been so busy that keeping up my facebook is even crazy. So nonetheless, I apologize for not being able to update SLASN.
I'll just give a brief update of the past month.
The last couple of weekends after Thanksgiving I got my dad out to the barn (which is in serious renovation). He brought out the Bobcat and pushed down trees, scraped the paddocks, leveled out the arena, and spread some dirt. It looks so much better out there! Everything is flat, smooth, and ready for riding. We've done some post-digging and more spreading by hand because the Cat ran out of gas before he could quite finished everything we wanted, but it was totally okay because he'd really done everything that couldn't be done by hand. That weekend I rode Malachi with spurs for the first time. I can't say it did much for us because he acted the same, and they didn't give me as much support as I thought they would. So I've converted back to no spurs because they're too hard to get on and some horses can't have them and they're just a pain. My horse really isn't ready for many changes yet anyway because I need to work on getting him balanced and frequent. He's not as bad as he was in terms of motivation, but he is definitely still a lazybones and he still needs a good disciplining.
As for the jumping streak, it's pretty much gone now. I just haven't had the time to get out there at all and work him consistently. I don't have any clippers that work anymore so I can't get his nasty hair off, poor guy. He has a load of thick, short hair that attracts dirt like a vacuum as well as heat. He sweats mostly in his lower neck, his flank area, and of course the girth. He isn't even grown in yet and he's still looking pretty hot after rides. I hate the weather down here because it is so freaking unpredictable. One day it's blistering 82 degrees, the next it's 45 degrees and raining. It makes me want to hit Florida in the face.
The last two rides I had were devoted to leg yielding. He is nearly 75% in the walk, he would be solid if he stopped playing games and focused only on stepping under. He can go over at whatever angle I want except straight over. I'm thinking about doing some research on how to get him focused on his ride, but I can never find one specific query that's like mine.
Malachi is just so different from other horses that it is hard for me to realize that I need training methods tailored to his individuality. I can do many different things on the ground with him that work, but I just need one for on his back. The one thing that makes me mad at him is how defiant he is. If he would give an effort he would not be so green. All of his goofiness is superficial. He never truly spooks at anything. It's all a distraction he had planned for me. One thing that helps him with on demand focus is transition. I'll trot, halt, trot, walk, trot, halt, and change direction. Everything is really random so he doesn't have much time to think.
But anyway, I had an epiphany on horseback the other day. I asked him to leg yield in trot and he struggled a bit at first before thinking about it and moving completely under. I don't think I've ever been so surprised. It just must have clicked in his brain at that instant and he crossed all the way over the diagonal. I tried the other way and he followed, but was slower and I figured it was like writing with my left hand. He was finally on board with it. I guess that just like that something can click in a horse's brain.
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