Oh Girls...Sigh

Where to start?

I have always laughed at movies that have the little ladies riding the sweet mare. Ha, they would do better on a gelding. Mare's can be so opinionated and complicated.
My girl's are no exception. Since Jenna has joined the mare herd the dynamics have been crazy. Dottie is the boss. She sometimes has to use the two by four method to get that through to Jenna, which for a big horse is unusual. Rosemary is next in line and at 2 hands smaller than Jenna she has to be much more obvious. She tends to run at Jenna and move her around.
Well Jenna has been with the girls since December and the drama has... increased.

Twice in the last 10 days, Jenna has come in with really good kick marks. One on her butt and one on her neck. I think she has no clue how to get out of the way. Her previous kicks we attributed to Dottie, but these we think are Rosemary.

College Girl is back for the summer and she has restarted her rides on Dottie. She gets Dottie moving without breaking her, so we let her come. She has matured some since last summer which helps. Anyway when she brings Dottie inside, Rosemary starts running around and calling. The barn monitor hates when her charges are out of sight. She runs, bucks and burns calories. She does not care who is in her way. And so Jenna becomes her hit and run victim. Unfortunately we have no where else for Jenna to go. You would think she would learn, but who knows.

Interestingly, Mom read an article that stated that dominant mares have second in commands that do their dirty work. So Rosemary is a Enforcer just doing her natural duty. The article continued to say that the second in command mares tend to be less spooky and more forward. Ding, Ding, definitely Rosemary. I guess we shall continue to watch the drama and hope it will soon settle.

Dottie eating bunny, so scary

Now for funny mare news, according to College Girl Dottie is scared of rabbits. It must have been a great winter for rabbits because they are everywhere this year. Popping out here, running there causing the big girl to be squirrely.
College Girl is not a brave rider so Dottie is a different horse when she rides her. We tried College Girl on DaVinci once, but it was not a good ride. Well yesterday Mom, my sister and College Girl all went for a ride. My sister normally rides Dottie, but Mom put her on Rosemary. Good thing too because College Girl looked at Rosemary and said "I've seen you from the ground, no way am I riding you." Say what!!! Yes Rosemary is a drama queen, but she is better under saddle. She took care of my sister for a long ride around the fields and over small ditches. I would have been less surprised if she had said Rosemary was too small since she is like 6ft tall. Oh well she misses out on all that Cob greatness. More for us :)

DaVinci and the Tower of Books

Weird title, I know but there is an explanation.

Today brought rain. When we got to the barn it was only lightly raining so we told the college girl to come over. To start with we had her groom DaVinci and let him get to know her. We explained that DaVinci is a more sensitive, hotter horse than Dottie and can be tougher to ride. She came back with that she rides hot warmbloods at school. In my experience a hot Arab vs a hot warmblood is two different situations. I think she underestimates DaVinci because he is only 14.1h.
The rain slacked enough that I told her to ride, though she was still not convinced he could handle her size. Mom tacked him up so he was more comfortable. CG mounted and what do you know she did not look bad on him...surprise.
DaVinci gave her his wonderful "8" walk over to the arena, testing her a little by "spooking" at the little red wagon. CG has the tendency to lean forward when tense, not good on a horse like DaVinci. Mom talked her through and they walked on. Walking was good. DaVinci stretched down and chewed. Then she asked for the trot, tensed and he just went fast. His head went up, her shoulders came forward and her hand went down. One big ball of building tension. Oh boy.
Mom to the rescue. She told her to lift then roll she shoulders back and down bringing her weight down into the saddle and bringing her vertical raising her hands. I told her to breathe. Crisis averted. DaVinci started to settle and find his working trot. Sometimes she was able to get him to round, but most of the time he looked like a tourist on a European tour.
One thing we noticed is her left shoulder drops lower than her right. Just like horses if we have discrepancies it can show in our riding. While riding Dottie she mentioned the saddle slipped to the right. We did not have the same problem, but with that shoulder she could be compensating by stepping heavy on the right stirrup causing the shift. With the DaVinci I noticed tracking to the left he was almost always bent to the outside. Could be she leads with the lower shoulder too.
Another thing we noticed is that she is like me, tall in the torso. When riding smaller horses or ponies that height can easily shift a horses balance. We saw that happening to DaVinci. Mom tried to explain what was happening to CG in non horse terms.
If you are carrying a tower of books and they begin to tip forward what is the normal reaction?
The carrier tends to quicken their pace to get under the tipping tower.
A horse can react the same way to a forward shift in balance of a rider. DaVinci will teach CG about keeping her shoulders back and finding her center. Being centered helps a rider be much more solid in the saddle. Okay moving on.
Anyway her trot work improved enough we told her to ask for canter. I told her to ask for left lead since he is not as strong that way. He is trained to pick it up with the inside leg with outside rein half halt, so that was different for her. He surprised her with the transition, a very nice one, and she kind of leaned forward and grabbed the reins. Another snowball moment building, but again Mom talked her through. The downward had a bit to much hand action so DaVinci protested a little. Overall it was not as bad as it could have been.
Hopefully she will be smart and go slow with him for her sake. I trust my horses opinions and neither has had a negative reaction to CG.
Do you think she will take DaVinci a little more seriously now :)