Haffey Dressage
  • Classical Dressage
  • Horse Training
  • Riding Lessons
  • Horses for Sale
  • Dressage Blog
  • Tack & Apparel for New Students
  • Dressage Glitz and Glam
    • Boarding
  • Connect with Your Horse
  • Contact
  • Rates

Square Peg in a Round Hole

11/7/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
     Last fall I blogged about my challenges with my mare Gracie. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t convince her to go forward. She would buck, balk, kick out, and do a host of things to evade. I worked with Stephanie Durand in both August and November, and by fall we had consistent progress, albeit with a few added bucks here and there. 

     Although we made progress, it wasn’t like Gracie was 100% better.  I knew a lot of it had to deal with horsemanship, and her resistance to going forward wasn’t really an under saddle question. I focused a lot on horsemanship and then with the onset of winter gave her time off. I realized when spring came around that I was procrastinating our work. I was apprehensive about starting the process again and suiting up with the mental armor to deal with her bucking. I was ready for the worst and preparing myself to start from scratch again. 

     But two things happened instead. First, I spent the winter doing horsemanship, which had a profound effect. Second, I learned how to find my frog legs and was no longer blocking her with my thigh and knee. The result: a horse that willingly and comfortably moved freely forward in all three gaits. It was like turning a key and unlocking a door that you’ve been knocking on with no answer for a year. I didn’t realize that those little details could make such a huge difference in the way my horse behaved.  

     More recently I’ve tried to keep Gracie focused doing other activities. I try to keep her jumping at least one to two days per week. I put out cones and barrels to ride her around, and then slip in the dressage between those activities. I also try to ride her in the outdoor arena as much as possible. She likes to “people watch” and observes all the people and traffic from the road nearby and the local businesses across the street. Mentally, I was also able to let go of any ideas or plans for dressage. Kind of like loading a difficult horse in the trailer – you’re always more successful if don’t have plans and the intention of taking all day if it’s necessary. 

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Ashley Haffey 

    Would you like to have your product or business shared in this blog? Check out our Sponsorship page. Thanks for your support! 

    Ashley Haffey is a dressage trainer and instructor located in Mooresville, NC. She focuses on  dressage training and also enjoys retraining OTTB's from the track, and starting young horses under saddle. She also teaches both on and off-site lessons to the surrounding community and participates in clinics and events on a regular basis. 


    Archives

    October 2018
    September 2016
    February 2016
    November 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Classical Dressage
  • Horse Training
  • Riding Lessons
  • Horses for Sale
  • Dressage Blog
  • Tack & Apparel for New Students
  • Dressage Glitz and Glam
    • Boarding
  • Connect with Your Horse
  • Contact
  • Rates