This afternoon was beautiful so I rode Ben over at Barnabee in their outdoor Olympic-sized Dressage arena. Ben always has much more adrenaline when I ride him outside, so it was fun to have some "horse-power" beneath me. I could tell that he really enjoyed the ride also, since he performed really well for me. Since it was a change of scenery he didn't act bored even though the exercises we did were similar to what we always do.
While riding outside, some of the things I have to always work on are lots of serpentines, changes of direction, small circles and transitions between trot and canter. All of these exercises allow me to have greater control of him, collect and engage him more and in turn also slow him down. He is so strong when he's outside, sometimes I feel like he just wants to take off at a gallop and run away with me.
After a 1/2 hour of straight arena work I decided to give Ben a break and try something different. I took him out of the 1/4 mile track that encircles the arena and the neighboring pasture. I'll have to bring my camera with me sometime while I'm riding so I can take a photo of how cool it is. Anyhow, when we first started walking around the track, Ben was really apprehensive. So I just encouraged him softly to go ahead and be brave. Ben can be a real chicken at times and easily freaks out at the smallest changes in his environment. I don't think I've worked Ben on the track since at least last summer since had been lots of construction in the retention pond close by and the track is closed when it's raining. A lot has changed since the last time we rode there and Ben was noticing everything!
After we walked about 1/2 way around, he saw some flowers that had definitely NOT been there before and he wasn't going to go near them if his life depending on it. The flowers had been placed there in memory of Jennie, one of the horses boarded at Barnabee who recently passed away. Her body was actually buried in the pasture that we passed, so maybe he sensed her presence or saw her ghost or something. Once we came close the grave, he stopped dead in his tracks and would not go forward at all. He started backing up really quickly and then just spun around. I turned him around again to reapproach the area but he wanted nothing to do with it, so I decided it was best to just go back the way we came then push him.
As we got back to the track entrance, I decided to get off of him and just handwalk him around the track to see if that would help to relax him. Sure enough it did and he walked past all of the spooky ghosts very confidently. I then decided to get back on him and walk around the track again, but this time when we approached the scary area I looked way past it and acted like we had seen it 1,000 times and it wasn't a big deal.
He was a little shy at first, but with my confidence he was able to gain his own and passed easily by. Getting my courage up I decided we should try passing at the trot and see how he'd do. At this point, I think he was so happy to be trotting around the track that even though he weaved a bit at the flowers, they weren't really a big deal anymore. He then trotted successfully past them twice more and then I called it quits.
My next goal with Ben is to get him confident enough to ride on the trails at Barnabee. We used to ride on them with no problems, but now he won't even step foot near them. So the next sunny Saturday that I ride, I think I'll tackle them. Wish us luck!
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