So, I've been taking my jumping lessons with Kate every week for a while now and they're going really well! I really ought to do a jumping lesson recap once a week because I'm learning so much and Flounder is the cutest, but if you haven't noticed, I'm incredibly busy. You probably have noticed given that 1) I haven't posted as much as I usually do, 2) I don't think I've even looked at comments in weeks, and 3) if you've messaged me, I've probably ignored you, felt guilty about it, promised myself I'll message you back, and then repeated that cycle indefinitely. I'll get around to the jumping lessons, I promise!
 |
| He's the best trail pony |
Anyway, some of Kate's horses are going in bitless bridles now and I've been super curious about trying to go bitless at some point, especially with the pony.
I don't really need the pony to go in a bit, he's not really going to be a dressage pony and I think you can do working equitation in a bitless bridle. He's always been a bit funny in the contact too.
I'm also big into experimenting right now and until TC stops flinging himself joyfully at butterflies, I feel more comfortable riding him in a bit. We'll get there... Eventually. He has mostly stopped flinging himself at bird shadows at least.
 |
| He looks cute in it I think! |
I assume the pony has had some kind of bitless bridle before, but I chose to have the tiniest bit of leverage by using TC's flower hackamore. I figured I could always emergency dismount if things got out of hand (I mean, he's small and typically doesn't get that far away from the ground) but I also wanted to avoid that if possible given how many times I've had to text my SO saying "I fell off the pony again" this year.
I was right, he actually took to it really well!
And it's clear that some of his anxiety is definitely about the bit/connection/something for him!
 |
| Love these trails |
See, it's been a bit funny getting to know him. At first I kind of met him on his own level and then when I started changing things, he was like "ehhh no, I built up all these barriers for a reason" so we had some tough times. He's definitely been better the last month or two after I introduced clicker training, but he's still been kind of anxious.
Like, he stopped exploding so much and was more with me, but he seemed nervous about it. And he'd always hit this wall about 20 minutes into work where he was super done, he'd get a bit rigid and nervous about anything I was doing. So I kept our rides to 20 minutes and even added some longeing in afterwards. I dunno, I don't really care how much work he does. I'm still just using him as horse #2 to make sure that I can commit to having two horses.
Anyways, when I put the bitless bridle on him, he still got a little anxious, but it was way easier to calm him back down (I still need to write about Dr Susan Fay's book but it's been really helpful with him!). He hit the 20 minute mark and I could feel the rigidity, but I sat with him for a moment and did some pillar work and then he was able to keep working for another 5 minutes (I didn't push it), which was huge!
 |
He's in a mylar comfort snaffle, not like he was in
a nasty bit or anything |
I'm going to see how he likes it for a little while. My next step is to either book a 1:1 with Celeste (but like, no offense to the pony, I'd rather use that money for TC) or to give him some prevocox for a week and see if there's any response. He turns 17 this year so there could be some pain management that needs to happen for him, which is totally fine. But he's also a super hardy breed soooo we'll see.
Or maybe it's just that the connection makes him anxious! That's what I'm going to run with and we'll just see.
