It was groundwork day again. We have several mares who are either returning to work after maternity leave, or being prepared to go under saddle.
Cary took Brunka and Saga for walks on the trail, each alone, to see if we can find any holes before riding them out on the trail alone. Both do fine ridden out in a group, and did fine being led out alone. Svertla, the mare who Janice helped us get last May (from the prior starvation home) is officially out of quarantine from the rabies exposure she got at that awful woman's home. She's plenty old enough (almost 7) to be ridden, but considering the shape she was in, then the winter weather, we haven't asked much of her, only playing a little ground work with her here and there. Today she got a good bit of attention. Cary wants to start doing more groundwork and basic training, but, let's just say his finesse skills need a little polishing. He spent a good bit of time with Svertla, with me offering suggestions. A few times he wanted to pull her over obstacles she wasn't sure about, and I had to keep reminding him that we were mainly interested in a positive experience, not raw results. Overall, he's doing a lot better though. You can tell that Svertla grew up (her first two years) at Unicorn Valley. She's a trail horse at heart already, not scared of any of the natural - and not many man-made - obstacles she encountered. She never missed a stride stepping over logs on the trail, and one was probably 18" - she just walked right over it. Too bad she was neglected for four years - she could be so far along now. I thank my lucky stars that she was only neglected though. Abused or mistreated horses are MUCH harder to deal with from a training viewpoint. She slipped just a tad going over the ditch into the woods. That unnerved her just a little so she got a couple of do-overs until she was fully comfortable. It wasn't really dangerously slick, just typical of what you might encounter on even an easy trail. On the way back to the house, she didn't miss a stride going over the ditch. Been there, done that... There was an old rusty silo on the farm and Cary pushed it to the edge of the trail, for a "scary trail obstacle". So far, we haven't found an Icelandic who's very worried about it. Svertla only had to look at it about two seconds before she touched it. He also hung an old gate out along the trail so we can practice opening an unimportant gate from horseback. You may see that when I post the link to the pictures. Svertla wasn't TOO sure about walking over the teeter-totter bridge in the obstacle area...but as soon as Cary put a handful of grass on it, it was a done deal. The biggest worry in the obstacle course was the tacky white flower whirly-gig. She wasn't so sure about that, but eventually crossed the blue tarp on the ground beside it - that took her a couple of minutes to find the courage to do. So many horses and so little time. I'm uploading some pictures of Svertla, and will post a link later. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
