Week's Progress

Well here we are at the end of another week. MissFire continues to make progress everyday but its baby steps these days. For some reason she still hasn’t let her guard down. This mare has a very tough exterior. She really tells a story. I have managed to get a few more rides in. They all go uneventful and she is quiet and willing. I won’t go into detail of the past week but here is a bit about last night.

I went out and caught her without trouble. She is much better with being caught now. I brushed her out, cleaned her front feet, and picked up her back feet (for the first time). She was great for all of this. So I was excited thinking we were going to have a good day. I took her to the trailer to tack her up. She was a nervous wreck. Went I went to put the saddle pad on her she started trembling. So I took it back a few steps and rubbed her down with it. After that I put the saddle on her and cinched her up. I was busy trying to get things ready for our first drill competition of the season so I had her stay tied for a bit.

When I was ready to put her to work I started to untie her and she blew up. Rearing, striking, running around (well trying). She really lost it! So I calmed her down and pulled her to the tack room so I could sit down and pet her. She was doing great, she let me touch her nose like 4 times and before I knew what happened she jumped backward and ran over the sidewalk and into the flower bed. I asked her to come forward and as soon as I went to touch her forehead she ran backwards across the yard. So I kept her backing all the way to the arena and around the round pen. By the time she got to the round pen she was done backing. I’m sure her muscles were hurting but I was tired of her rearing backwards at me. She stood quietly and let me touch her face and nose. I then bridled her and put her in the round pen. I went back to the trailer to get my goodies (ball, tarp, flag, and rope) and let her get used to the bit idea.

She was great for the flag tonight but nervous about the tarp. I had her drag it for a while then had her carry it. The ball was another story. She was scared and kept evading it. At one point she jumped and tried running through the panels of my round pen. Not sure what she was thinking, she didn’t try to jump it just run through it.

So we are now both exhausted and tired. But I still really wanted to ride her. So far we had only had very short rides; they were only a couple minutes at a time not really riding just hanging out on her back. So last night I crawled up on her a couple times then did some exercises off the panels and getting her to bend. When I finally was big and brave I asked to take a few steps. We rode for approximately 30 minutes last night. She was solid the whole time. I had the tarp, ball, and flag in the middle of the round pen and she kept stopping and staring at them. Pretty cute! She would also stuff her nose into the rope I had hanging on the rail.

By the end of the night I was feeling pretty good. The middle of the night was pretty discouraging. It still is. She really seems to be “happy” carrying a rider. She has her ears forward and moves willingly. She is a smart girl I wish I knew the key to her heart. She is always happy to see me but is always on edge.