Rodney and the Loggers

Training Journal

If you’re riding a horse, you’ve already won.

 

 
I would not have been surprised if Rodney had hopped right back on the trailer.

Recently, Stepping Stone Farm has opted to farm some of their trees. Big, clanky trucks were on site for many days.

I was not.

When I found out that the trucks would be at the barn, I bailed on my ABS lesson. I’m still traumatized by our encounter with construction trucks as background music to Milton’s mini-meltdown [Missing Lesson]. Even if the Saddlebreds were fine with it, I would have jumped at every bang.

Therefore I was less than pleased when we rolled up with Rodney to discover that the trucks were still there. The bad weather that slowed me down [Rain] also slowed down the tree herders.

Rodney was a star. He definitely noticed the trucks working up on the ridge. He put his ears on full periscope to check them out. However, he did not spin around to insist on facing them at all times.

So far, so good. Let’s see what happens under saddle. Once the tack goes on, things that were not scary can suddenly become alarming.

He walked. I was amazed. He had a two microspooks at the walk: once at a noise, once at nothing. Both times he recovered quickly enough that I was not toute bouleversée. The marbles got a bit looser when we started trotting, but he never lost them.

We even cantered. Not my plan but he offered a soft, quiet canter so I put on my big girl britches & went with it.

He could have taken one look, one listen and flipped his pancakes. His coping meter was on max, but he never got overwhelmed.

Good job!

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott