Monday, February 21, 2011

Getting fit

Since I am still considering buying a Curly horse to ride and I am mainly looking at young horses (mostly young horses available on the market here, I hope to be able to post more news on this soon) I decided I myself need to get back into shape for riding (young horses and un-fit riders don't match well). I started my regime of exercises, a bit of running, lots of biking and of course riding! So yesterday I went riding together with my friend on one of her horses. The plan was to ride to where Voelie is (abouth an hour riding at a good speed (mostly a fast trot) and then have Voelie walk along for a bit as part of her training. The riding part was fine (great to be back in the saddle!!) and it was good for my friend as well because it saves her some training time because now two horses were trained in the same time (Endurance training). When we came to the field where Voelie is she was so scared of the horses we were riding. I could not get her even near the horses let alone have her walk along. While the horses rested a bit I tried to get her to calm down but it was not going to work, she was too scared so I put her back in the field. We finnished the ride and in total rode about 3 hours:) I thought I would not be able to walk today because my muscles would be sore but actually I am fine so that's good news. After the ride I went back to Voelie and did some more work with her. Somehow her confidence is really low at the moment. She does not want to have her halter on and tries to run away. I also had trouble with the deworming, she was really difficult while the last time she was fine with this. I don't really know what the cause is because she was doing really great lately and nothing went wrong or really upset her that I know of. I decided to go back a couple of steps and start again with building confidence. I just stood with her, talking to her, scractching her a bit and just trying to get her confidence and trust back. Hopefully this will work out well and we will be back at trying new things soon.

6 comments:

  1. Don't be discouraged! Sometimes it is one step forward and two steps back. I am glad you were able to get out for a good long ride!

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  2. Sometimes? It always is back and forth! I also do a lot of sport, mainly running. I found a good condition very helpful for riding. Best Caren

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  3. Life is a roller coaster Jessica! Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason for it to us....but there is a reason in Voelie's mind. Working towards building her confidence again is a great way to help her. How old is Voelie?

    I think that's great that you are preparing yourself so well for riding and working with a youngster....somehow I didn't follow that lesson and am going backwards to move forward!:~) Conditioning is so important to riding well.

    Best wishes for getting back on track on trying new things soon!

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  4. Thanks everyone, I am indeed working on building Voelies confidence again. She is teaching me so much about handling a foal. I have owned several young horses before (3 or 4 years old) but I now realise this is completely different than a foal! Voelie is now 10 moths old.

    Indeed being fit is important in riding! I think it is sometimes underestimated

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  5. Jessica!!!! I think sometimes they are just in a more sensitive mood than other times!! Plus, if you went back after having the other horses smell on you...she might be reacting to that. Sassy always gives me the nose once over...if I go in KAllie-girl's stall before hers!!! LLOLL Baby Girl V want her mama all to herself..LOL Horsey Hugs my friend...

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  6. Hi Krissy, maybe Voelie was indeed a bit jealous becaus I did ride and smell like Miss Gilby (my friends horse). Yesterday was allready a lot better, she was still a bit more nervous then normally but she did chose to follow me away from the herd in the field.

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