Riding the "Dolphin"

Yesterday we had horse project at 4-H. I was looking forward to a great day with Lady- and we did start out nicely. She was really relaxed on the ground. Her trot was nice and slow. I got up and did my stubbies (three times around the arena now- yay!), and did some trotting with her, and she did wonderfully! But then, Mrs. Miller put her on the 22' line, and started doing circles with me at the trot. When we started doing the circles with a rider on her back, Lady blew up. She was bracing, bending the opposite way I was, trying to do straight lines instead of circles, wringing her tail, pinning her ears...the whole bit. We tried just getting her to relax- no luck.

I ended up falling off of her. She did what Lida Parelli calls the "dolphin"- where the horse starts to canter, but the head goes done and the hind end goes every way it shouldn't go. It actually kind of looks like they're hopping when they do this. Lady did that. And I fell off. I landed on my knuckles, with my back all twisted up. No damage done though, I think. I'm just super sore right now.

Anyway, Mrs. Miller had me go sit down for a while, and she worked with Lady for a bout 20 minutes. I think this might have been a mistake. Right brain Extroverts need short sessions. But there certainly was no good note to end on. She didn't want to ANYTHING yesterday. SO I don't know what we should've done. I'm kind of of the mindset now that I don't really have any business working with Lady...she's to advanced a horse for me. But then I go back to thinking that she's good for me to work with, because we both learn so much....

I got back on after Mrs. Miller finally got her to want to relax. She was much better...but I don't know if it was because she was tired or she had actually thought something out. She had an hours rest before the next 4-Her go on her, and she did fine for her.

Anyway...not a very successful day. At all. I looked at the Do's and Don'ts for a Right Brain Extrovert, and we did pretty much everything right- except for the length of the session. That may have been our whole problem. I don't know. I think I need to chew on all of it for a few more days.