Flexibility with our horsemanship

Today Sarah and I had planned on taking Simba and Lily to school over jumps at Frying Pan.  We attempted to beat the storm.  Upon arrival the winds came in, a bit earlier than expected.  The ponies were a little unsure of all of the strange sounds inside of the indoor. At one point the bluestone warm up ring was blowing onto the metal side of the indoor-that was quite the sound!  Lily was only a tiny bit unsure with one or two baby sized shys. Simba was a little more concerned, however.  After walking them around  bit we did get on and allowed them plenty of time to walk and try to be calm.

During our warm up, Sarah and I agreed that although we had planned on doing a lot of jumping, we would canter, and maybe take a jump or two depending on how they did.

They were fantastic and we both ended up jumping several jumps.  However, we did not do what we expected to do.  We decided that it would be a better experience for the ponies if we had a few really nice jumps while they were calm, and end on a good note.

This is a perfect example of why we need to be flexible with the plans we make for ourselves and our horses.  Sure, we wanted to do more jumping-it's fun!  But with the weather conditions the way they were, it was NOT appropriate.  Plastic trash bags inside of cans were blowing, the doors were rattling, as were the gates. Stuff was hitting the side of the indoor.  Lily told me she thought there were white pony eating monsters trying to get in when she heard the big doors rattle.  That did, however, make Simba happy. :)



Loretta
 the natural horseman
 clear communication/visible results