Thoroughbred Does Levade

Hey there—not a thing to say actually—the girls are going like the girls…Shu is herself—I wish I could give you some idea just how sweet she is–she takes care of Patrick completely–would never ever know she had ever even seen a track. I am changing tacts with Game a bit—I am purposely going to confuse her workouts as far as what she expects—bring her in from pasture and put the saddle on straightway and then brush her down and pick feet etc–then take saddle off and put it back on 2-3 times—take a step back and not even try cross-ties but let Patrick hand hold her and let her flip her head up and down while tacking—but not let her move around–take 3x as long to tack up as anyone ever should–lots of brushing and mane and tail attn to the point of her head drooping and putting her to sleep—brush for a while then take her and hand-walk her to some places that spook her then bring her back in and do some more brushing—completely tack her up in the ring and never bring her into the barn to do it. When in the ring under tack am walking around on a lead shank or just standing and patting her for 10 min at a time when she is expecting work….sometimes even just bring her in afterward without ever “working.” Also am going to, in hand with these things, going to go soft—let her show her nerves—just lots of rubbing and brushing—give her some rubdowns like I do for Shu for her chiropractic things—tons of hands on and contact things just to smooth out her energy, but just not let her do things like swing her head as a weapon—but more like let her bob it up and down to bleed her nerves some–not contain them but let them out. I believe playing to the master on this particular horse will be going head to head and she has callouses built up—will never work—I think what I need to do is confuse her—put her in places she doesn’t expect to be—then be there for her–let her look to me for her reassurance(and she does) as she is so much a puppy dog in her base nature—give her rules—but 75% softness and expression and 25% basic rules for safety and manners. I love her to death but she is like some kids I have taught dancing to—you can never get them to follow the rules by reinforcing the rules—sometimes you have to first get their attn by joining them in their chaos and acting out and rule breaking which they never expect from a teacher, then gradually channel them back to your way of thinking once you have their attn. Anyway….it’s what my gut and looking in her eye tells me to do—so going to try it—nothing to lose really—I can always go to hard case task master if that doesn’t work–it isn’t like I can’t project that well enuf…but in her case I think it is wrong. I’m not going to go into specifics really of what she is doing—I think it gives a wrong impression of her and I don’t want to do that—but will tell what I am trying and somewhere down the line if it works can go back and revisit the what’s and hows of how we got there, but right now—I think for her AND for me, her image needs a bit of protecting. She really is a big teddy bear—I love her to death and totally believe in her—can’t wait till she and I get things locked together on track…the girl has some moves—and power like you wouldn’t believe—I have seen her shift her weight onto her haunches almost to the point of Levade and not even blink—she moves with all the assurance of any warmblood I have ever seen—more so than most thoroughbreds I have ever seen—and where power is involved—including Shu. She has the pure mass and power to do whatever she wants without losing balance or being awkward where Shu has the grace of a ballerina…both very formidable against in a show ring in their own rights. Anyway, it is the grand experiment–I occasionally get a ride in on Shu so is fun when I can. If I can pull this off you are going to get some unbelievable pics…cross your fingers for me as I am kind of going off the reservation for some of this–I really believe this is going to work but am a bit nervous because I want it to so bad and am so attached—lol. There is just something special there–I can feel it—something that I think is a few steps beyond just an acceptable riding horse…if I can just get to it…anyway…enuf demented rambling—lol… Chuck