The Clinic is Finished

I finished the clinic today. And I'm glad I did. I wasn't feeling that way this morning but in all fairness to myself and Chance I had to go. I set myself up to be as positive as I could possibly be hoping that maybe I would actually believe we would have a good day. If you put it out there just maybe you'll get what you are looking for.

Chance has settled into the routine of getting on the trailer and going to Piper Ridge. He was quiet and ready to be ridden pretty quickly. He stood very nicely for the saddle and we were riding in the ring within just a few minutes. He was still very sticky but I could feel lots of try in him. Libby gave us a job - tie a string around a fence post, trot to another part of the ring with purpose, trot back to the string very quickly, untie it and start over. This was what it took to finally free up his feet. And before I knew it we both did believe that we would be okay. So then we got to ride outside of the ring with one other horse and rider. We worked very hard on getting his thoughts to come back to me when they would leave. And we made lots of progress. We didn't go far, but Chance was able to do it. The other horse was pretty close to the same level of riding as Chance, they really helped each other out a lot. It was a good confidence builder for all of us.

So I guess what I have come to is that I should be prepared for Chance to fall apart like this every once in a while. I am not going to lower my expectations for him, but know that there is a good possibility it will happen again. And in all fairness I don't ride him enough or expose him to enough to gain the confidence we need to handle the outside world. We are now on a 30 day plan. With the exception of Sept 27th and 28th (I'm going away with my Mom)I will ride or work with Chance everyday for the next 30 days.

The other thing I came to is that frustration is part of the process. I was frustrated that I became frustrated. I had never gotten to the point of wanting to give up like this before. Not a good place to be or a good feeling to have. Maybe it will make me a better horse person. I hope so.