Benson, oct 19th

[htrimm08]

we worked on lunging again, hes becoming much better.
Hes much more consistant when it comes to stoping, changing gaits and slowing. I asked him to lope just to see how he would react and lope he did. Only he tugged on the line a bit, after going around a couple times I asked him to return to walk and praised him up. Yesterday we took the babies out for a little jaunt in the snow, he was very excited and it was much fun, I missed trail rides. Thats all for now

[Emily C]

Sounds great Heather, keep it up!

[htrimm08]

thanks Em!
Tonight I rode the boy at a walk/trot. just going round, and transitioning back and forth, doing circles, stoping and backing up and he did very well. At first he tried to barge off a wee bit when riding down around the door but he quickly gave it up when I applied more pressure on his side. Towards the end he lost his footing and fell on his knees, it was a bit scarey but I got off just to make sure he wasnt hurt, thank god he wasnt, and then got back on and rode around some more. Other than that, no other updates. I have a few pictures here, Sarah came with and rode echo as well, I have some pictures of her as well.

[htrimm08]

last night I had planned to ride but He was wet so just I lunged him at walk/trot, hes doing very well responding to commands, it only takes me to click twice and he will pick up the trot, and when I say easy he will slow pace and when I click once he picks up pace. The only thing we need to work on before I move on to loping is that when hes excited or worked up It takes a while for him to understand that when I say Woah I mean stop-now! Thats it for now, Ill get some pictures tonight to put up.

I got into looking up Bensons pedigree and I didn't realize how many great sires were in there. Poco Pine is his great grandsire, out of Poco Bueno then King and Man O'War, all of which are AQHA champions. With that hes also got The Ole man out of Three Bars, both of those famous sires as well. Pretty cool.

[htrimm08]

So we've incountered our first setback. Lately Ive had a bit of trouble on the lunge, in respect to responding to woah. I don't really know what caused him to start this because right when I began lunging him he would stop the instant I asked. It seemed to have started after the couple of times I tried to get him to lope, that in which I discovered hes just not ready for yet, and it was only since then he started not responding well when I ask him to stop which is weird because he stops when I lead him, and as well last night I was working on it with him in one direction and at the end of that he was stopping, but then in the other direction he wouldnt again, and its not like he dosnt know what woah means..SOO this is means a step backwards for us. We have a lesson with Danika on saturday so Im going to ask her about it but for now Im Just back to the basics.

[ariana]

Brandi does that too, she will woah at one direction then I have to teach her it all again in the other direction, best of luck! You guys seem to be doing good !

[htrimm08]

Thanks, yeah hes going to have to give that up, its so fusterating!

Last night was fun, we rode in the arena, lots of transitioning from trot to walk, but mostly trotting. We did lots of trotting circles instead of just going around the arena constantly. He only tried to break to walk a few times, which I corrected instantly.. hmm, thats about itt.. tonight Im going to lunge and ride, because we really need to work on lunging.. I mean I could just forget about it, but its something that I want him to be able to do.

[htrimm08]

Today he had his lesson with Danica Ellis, I basically wanted to know where he is as of now, and what I should be doing to help progress his training more effectivly. I'll be uploading some pictures soon from that.

So she rode him around at walk/trot for most of it, she said that he is pretty sensitive to the leg, so I should be using it for everything I ask of him.. and funny story, aparantly he has more "spunk" than Echo, who would have guessed? As well, I need to do more excersizes to get him to give to the bit, instead of holding his head high in the air, trying to push against it.

I was also wondering if I should hold off loping for a bit, because I wasnt sure if he was mentally ready for it, but she said that if Im comfortable enough with it then we can start that. She also commented on how well he comes under himself and liked it alot. As well She cantered him around, he was a bit confused about it but all in all he was a really good boy and worked up a good sweat.

[htrimm08]

SO. last Monday night my lovely little horse bucked me off...twice..
so as the story goes, I went to the barn by myself that night and no one else was in the arena, we were trotting and out of nowhere mister Benson takes off in a mad dash bucking! so off pops little ole me and he continues to go bucking about. It was rather odd that he would do that, anyway, so when I recovered in being stunned I walked him about until he calmed down then hopped back on, we walked around for a nice bit until I was confident enough to trot him, and after that I had been trotting for a nice while, then something banged on the side of the arena and off he went again.. dangerous much? well I actually got hurt the second time, I landed on my tailbone, so I had no choice but to just put him back in his stall.
It was just so out of his character to do that, but I guess hes been so good ever since I got him we were bound to hit a snag. I would say it was a combination of being strung out and nervous. It was the first time we rode in the arena without Suzanne and Echo in there as well.

So anyway that was my story of how I got bucked off my horse.. yesterday was the first time I went since because my ass hurt to much to do anything really.. so yesterday I rode him and he was fine, doing circles and backing up all that stuff.. I lunged him a bit before and funny thing- the little frigger wouldn't let me catch him when I took his halter off to put on his bridle, so I got him going until he would let me. I only trotted him a bit because my tailbone hurt to do so, but i felt it important to trot him after our incident. The only thing is that sooz and echo were in there with us, so next time I ride Im going to go in by myself for the first bit, and see if that had anything to do with why he took off on me.

Tonight we didn't have a lot of time so I just lunged him, and he did really well with stopping tonight. He will be heading back to NL the end of this month, so he will have a nice two month break until I finish school and take him home.

[htrimm08]

Last night I rode for ten mintues before Suzanne came in with Echo, my conclusion to why Benson took off was that he was scared and distracted.. I noticed that in the beginning he wasnt paying a whole lot of attention to me, ears pricked and head up, and when Echo came in he relaxed. Besides that we worked on him giving to the bit and in the end he really started to get it.

Tonight we worked on the same thing and he did really well, constantly reminding him to put his head down and give to it, and with this we also practiced backing up and teaching him to give to the bit helped alot with that. Before he used to try to push against the bit trying to resist, but tonight towards the end he was backing up with more ease. He was a very good boy but I could tell that by the end of it he was getting a bit ticked off.

I haven't trotted him yet without suzanne there, worried that I may be a bit nervous and he would pick up on it, but Im more confident in him now, so tomorrow I'll probably give it a go. Now Im going to try to ride for at least ten minutes by ourselves everytime to get him used to it, because if thats the case, I cant have him taking off when we ride by ourselves now can i? I dont think it will be too much trouble though

[ariana]

Well, it's not good that you got hurt and that he bucked :/ BUT it is good that you figured out the reason and that you're working towards it Good Luck !

[htrimm08]

ast night was good.. I took him out and lunged him at walk/trot again, he did well. In the beginning he was trying to see what the other horse at the end of the arena was doing, but with some correction he started paying attention to me. Hes been doing well with stoping so I think its time to try and move on to loping again.

After I lunged him I rode, We worked on giving to the bit at a walk as well as trotting, he picks up on things so fast and is very pleasant to work with. As well we worked on stoping, backing up and walking/troting circles and I have to say its all much much easier now that hes got the bit thing down path. Ive been using my seat more to signal him to stop, walk and pick up pace and hes been responding well to that.

[htrimm08]

we've been having a really good time lately,
Last night we started off with giving to the bit at the walk and bending, Hes been doing really well, putting his head down every time, the instant I ask. We've moved on to working at the trot with it and hes doing well with that as well.. it takes him a bit longer to clue in to what I want.. Ive never had to focus so much on my seat in my life, shoulders back, heels down, keep my leg on, ass under me to help push him into the bit and remember not to bump his mouth, but anyway that was all good. As well I got him loping around a couple times, and he was easy to get going, and boy does he ever go. Other than that we worked on the usual backing up, stopping and trotting circles.

Today we went super early 9:00 am and was there till 2.
We did all the same stuff again, but I didn't lope him, I wanted to focus more on getting him to give to the bit at the trot. After we took the ponies outside for a little hack, it was fun.

[htrimm08]

Yesterday we worked a lot on trotting and giving to the bit, we trotted circles in both directions and stopping with using my seat and voice, I rarely have to use my reins to get him to stop, only when hes excited I apply some pressure to them. As well with that we worked on loping, he dosnt quite have his balance with it, which makes him boot around rather fast and I find myself popping up quite a bit so I found it hard to concentrate on keeping him going while having to keep myself in the saddle, so when I finally got him around once without breaking that was good enough and later trotted around standing with my heels down, we found that I don't keep them down enough. He broke quite a sweat so I walked him around to cool out and then put him back out in the field.

Today I brought Chris up and he walked Benson around a few times, I then only rode for about 20 minutes at walk/trot and trotted circles both ways, then just for something to do I started neck reining with him.

[htrimm08]

Over the weekend Suzanne and I took a road trip to PEI to see Jess Boyd, and rode Flanj, So obv I didnt ride my ponz

I gave Benson quite the workout yesterday, we started off with walking and bending, stopping and backing up. After that we moved on to jogging and giving to the bit and then moved on to trotting and changing speed from jog to trot and back again, as well we trotted poles which is a first, I've only trotted him over one previously, and he did really well, though he hit a few at times, hes not sure how to place himself over them yet. We trotted circles a bit in both directions.

after that we moved on to loping, or er galloping? lol. Hes still off on his balance so he likes to give er' around, I felt much better about my seat, and kept my leg on better, so I was able to concentrate on him more, he stayed along the outside better instead of trying to veer off, doing his own little thing. Then someone came in with their horse so I decided to call it a day with loping because I didn't really trust the horse. Overall I was really happy with him tonight, hes so good to me