A successful exercise for Jellybean and me

Amanda was busy last Friday night and did not get the opportunity to train with Jellybean.  Amanda had a lesson to co-teach and me being the good guy that I am did not want Jellybean to feel left out.

So...  while Amanda started her lesson, I got Jellybean out of her stall and started grooming her.  She did fine with brushing on her right side but, her left side is her temperamental side.  She tried to squish me between her and the rail!!!   what was she thinking?  Now she is a 700 pound horse but,  I do not squish easily!  I knuckled her in the haunch to tell her to move over and, after a few more squishing attempts she gave up and stood still for her left side brushing.  Next came the care of the dangerous end...  the hooves.  Jellybean let's Amanda pick her hooves no problem but, I am new to her so she challenged me.  her front hooves went well; with just a few stubborn moments.  her hind legs however, she wanted to fight for.  I know horses kick and i know Jellybean is opinionated so I was prepared.  As I went to her hind leg she kicked out.  with a firm but fair hand I reminded her that kicking at people is NOT tolerated.  We had this talk three or four times but in the end she gave me her hoof and showed the respect she should.


Then we moved on to her lesson for the day.  She is currently learning voice commands for whoa, walk, trot, and canter.  she is learning upward transitions as well as downward transitions.  It seems like a lot for a two year old to get.  As we moved out to a walk circling right she did fantastic.  She moved out on the word walk and stayed in her circle.  She moved up and down her gaits on command and even came to a stop direct from a trot.  She really is a good pony!   So we switched over to her not so good side.  Circling left she would not hold her circle. She kept cutting in and all she wanted to do was trot.  We worked a lot on our commands circling left.  I had to pull her in to remind her what walk was and give her constant reminders not to cut the circle.  In the end we both had a good work out and we both had our horsemanship improved by the lesson.

Amanda was very happy for the work done and another boarder at the barn also commented about how nice it was to have someone to do things while Amanda was busy.

It was bittersweet to do the training with Jellybean.  It made me miss Ginger a whole lot.  It was the first time I had worked with a horse since she died almost three weeks ago.  It felt wonderful to work with the horses again and I was told that these feelings reaffirm that "I was a horse person before I knew I was a horse person".