Photo by Margaret Chant and edited by Jessica Metropulos

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Nuggets and Assessments

Hey all,

So, news for the day is that I've got a new horse in training!! I know, random right? Who'da thunk in the middle of November? Anyway, about the pony :)

Her name is Nugget, hence the first part of the title. Nugget is a 2005 Tennessee Walker mare, about 15.2 I'd guess, black with two white socks on her hinds, and VERY sweet. Upon first impression, I pinned her at RBI. She was shy, there was no tongue when she licked her lips, very untrusting and tense, and she had a high tendency to whip and kick (tried once at me, twice at other horses), and was overall just kind of aloof. Well, that couldn't have been a worse misread, upon actually getting to KNOW the horse.

Innately, she's actually a very silly LBE. This morning, after haltering her up and cluing her into the wonders of the Winnies cookie (I have another addict on my hands!), Nugget showed me her snotty, dominant, "let me eat your gloves!" side of her lovely little horsenality. We played with the friendly game, and then "Hi there, Meet my stick and string, these are my tools." which started out a little spooky, but by the second toss over her back, she was turning her head to nibble on the string, and was trying to take the stick from my hands with her muzzle, etc.

I started a little bit on teaching the other two Principle games, too, which I would call "rocky". As with many horses that haven't been approached with the Parelli technique, Nugget was pretty clueless when it came to yielding to any sort of pressure, be it rhythmic or steady. This made teaching the porcupine game especially difficult, since if there isnt' a response to the steady feel, the addition of driving is generally encouraged. At first, she REALLY had a tendency to want to lift UP, she actually reared and struck once while I was driving her forhand to the left, something I really don't want to deal with, let alone ENCOURAGE. Anyway, after about 6 or 8 rocky attempts, we finally started to get the concept, and we quit on that. I think tomorrow will be devoted to a similar session, but hopefully I will get the opportunity to refine, and hopefully won't be quite as "all thumbs" as I was today (cold weather+wind+awkward leather work gloves=VERY weird rope handling).

I'll try to get some photos tomorrow, too. She's really a cutie with such a beautiful face. Can't wait for you all to see :)


Also, on another note (Second part of my title), I helped a student film her L1 today. We got about 3/4 of it done, which was pretty good, considering my camera was threatening to die the entire time we were out there. The filming went almost flawlessly, Jenifer handles pressure and hardly gets stressed at ALL in front of the camera, which made for quick progressive tasking. I'm really looking forward to editing it together. For some reason, the lighting was really pretty, and so I'm looking forward to playing with music, fonts, and fading to go with the video. Nothing like a well-put-together assessment :)

Anyway, time for me to go eat dinner. I'll get some pics of Nugget tomorrow! Savvy on, all!

1 comment:

Lucy said...

Nugget sure sounds interesting! Can't wait to see pics of her. :)