Now that the nights are dark weekday ride and leads are out,
but we do have a flood lit school to our disposal. I have also been feeling a
bit guilty that Sofie has been so side lined by Tonto’s health so wanted to
re-ignite my ambition to do ground work with her in the school after work.
There is an instructor at the yard who does do groundwork
and bonding lessons. This seemed like an easy place to start so I thought I
would give it a go. Our first lesson was really interesting. We worked on the
concept of ‘grounding’ which is the ‘being present’ thing from the trust
technique course I did a while back. Interestingly I found this really
uncomfortable with Sofie. I felt very anxious around her. I didn’t expect her
to react to me but she almost instantly started to sinc with my breathing when
we started. She was also very keen to be with me, at one point dragging the
instructor to me when I managed to ground myself with positive energy. The only
problem is Sofie is so insecure that she wants to be ontop of me, which then
makes me worried. When I worried, Sofie shuffled. My main worrisome thoughts
were ‘I can’t do this’ which is something I often think. Something for me to
start to tackle I guess.
We then moved onto walking and parking – to try and improve
Sofies space issues. The idea is that Sofie learns to take ques from me for
where I want her to be, and learns that it is OK to be standing away from me.
This had a slightly faulty start when the instructor tried to demonstrate what
she wanted… but applied too much pressure and Sofie reared. I felt bad about
that because I forgot to mention the rear thing – Sof hasn’t reared since May
so I had forgotten about the trick. It also made me anxious again as I don’t
like her rearing so close to me. Never-the-less we continued and I got her to
do some parks. Sof clearly felt worried about what I was asking so I never got
her to stay in one place too long. All in all we were out there for 45
minitues. The time passed so quickly!
Last night I gave parking another go. This time I focused on
being relaxed and positive. After all we are only walking and halting! Once I
stopped stressing Sofie was much happier. She got it really quickly, only
taking a few goes. I then decided to stop there before she got too bored and
worked with Tonto. I find working with Tonto much more comfortable. He doesn’t
make me as nervous and Sof. Tonto understood park almost instantaneously, this
shouldn’t surprise me. We have had 17 years to understand each other, we are
like an old married couple in this respect.
Going forward I plan on doing more with Sally (the
instructor) and also working on straightness training to see if I can build in
some physio aspect. This might help both ponies with their aliments. I’ve
already downloaded and read Marijke de Jong’s e-book and signed up to some fb
groups. Silke at the yard is also going to give us a lesson on Monday night
which I am looking forward to. It is really nice to do something proactive for
a change, and I look forward to learning some new stuff.
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