A Weekend of Firsts Part. 1

I had Kwik adjusted for the first time (probably in his life) on Friday, and I was pleasantly surprised at what Dr. Jay didn't find. I was half expecting there to be something major going on, but he said that, other than typical racehorse stuff, there isn't much else going on. Yay! Kwik does have some TMJ, but Dr. J showed me a massage technique to help manage this. I'm planning to get his teeth floated in March, so hopefully that will help some as well.

Earlier in the week I learned about a mini cross country clinic to be conducted by Ann Haller at the farm over the weekend. I told the BO I might be interested in participating if there is a green/beginner group. Anne called me that night to learn a little bit more about Kwik and my goals. We had a really nice chat, and she assured me that there is a lot we can do to introduce Kwik to the field and build confidence.

We ended up being placed with M and her horse Sherlock, who is actually Kwik's next door neighbor in the barn. After we tacked up, we rode over to the xc field. Kwik was a very brave boy walking down the trail. When we reached the xc field, Kwik stopped dead in his tracks and gaped at the big scary things lurking in the field. He felt like a loaded spring, so I decided to hop off and walk him the rest of the way. The group before us was finishing up some course work, and Anne gave me a leg up so Kwik could take in the sights as they finished up. Since the girls were coming through the water complex, Anne wanted Kwik and Sherlock to follow one of the seasoned guys on a walk around the perimeter of the water and then circle back so Kwik could see the riders coming through the water. Apparently the horse splashing through the water was pretty scary because Kwik exploded into a bucking, twisting fit which was pretty damn hard to sit. I really thought I had it, but I ended up sliding off anyway. I was totally fine, just really surprised and kind of embarrassed. Kwik was a good boy though and just stood there trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Anne gave me another leg up, promised these kind of things happen with green horses and that they'd all been there before, and stood with us while the rest of the advanced girls finished up.

Thankfully, the rest of our ride was much better! We spent the time breaking up the field into "classrooms" and worked on leaving the group to perform a task, riding uphill, and putting your horse into "4-wheel-drive" for downhill riding. Then we transferred these skills to walking up and down the small bank. Kwik tackled walking up the bank no problem, but he was a little weary about going down. When he finally did step down, I was so proud that he trusted me enough at that point to tackle something like that! We practiced walking over a small ditch next, and then worked on walking through the water complex. To my surprise, Kwik followed Sherlock right into the water (which was actually pretty deep). He started to play in the water, but Ann talked me through riding him safely through, and we did the exercise again without Sherlock. Our last challenge was to leave the group and ride one of the obstacles we worked on solo. I chose the teeny ditch, and Kwik threw a little hissy fit walking down and over but did great walking back up.

M and I had two very tired (emotionally and physically) horses by the end, and I couldn't have asked for a better xc introduction for Kwik. Anne was fantastic - she did a wonderful job challenging us and building confidence simultaneously. Sure we had some meltdowns, but this is all new to Kwik, he's only been at Ashland for a little over a week now, and honestly, I couldn't be more proud. :)

Watching coursework

Me, Kwik, M, and Sherlock 

 

Right before the rodeo show