Thinking UP on the outside of the box....

My adventures with Sassy are creating epic "remember whens" for me and teaching me epic lessons~ Those of you who know me are aware of my ability to "think outside of the box". This weeks lesson was "Thinking UP on the outside of the box" for me as well as Sassy!  To give a bit of background.... I have my *hippotherapy once a week..... and there is nothing I look more forward to for me!! I plan my "awake" time carefully so that I haven't taxed my system and I can go ...

 Dressage is other worldly to a rider that in the past has ridden "just to keep the horse between her and the ground". My wonderful instructor Dianne who is quite regal in the saddle has to be thinking..OO GOOD LORD... as she watches me and develops techniques (Outside her normal equine instructing box) to make me a better rider inspite of my unique medical aspects!!!! However...develop them she does....and I am learning so much from her and from Sassy.  I see a difference in my riding as well as FEEL a difference.

Every person has physical aspects that come naturally to them....the same is true of horses. They are born with the propensity towards certain movements....some rear(vertical movers) ....some kinda bounce and sidepass(lateral movers)  Besides loving to be prissy....Sassy~girl has a love of climbing. Yes...climbing...Step up...stand....step down....rear hooves left on step.  I have at my disposal a huge tree trunk and Sassy and I step up and stand on that quite a bit

 Dianne has a horse sized box to teach them to stand on and we decided last nite to introduce Sassy to it!!! They brought the box out of the corner...I dismounted...took off her bridle....lead rope in place.....and led her to the box.... BUMP...BUMP BUMP BUMP...there she stood with all four hooves ...... Quite pleased with her curly lil self!!!! Dianne and I were even more pleased.  She posed for picts....Let me REMOVE her lead rope and move away.....posed for more picts.....stepped up with encouragement from the other direction....posed for more picts.....stood there for a LONG LONG time!!!

 Now at this point I must share my Sassy girl's focused area of improvement ..... She loves to be close to her horse buddies!!!  When I first became her human...she had a borderline obsession so we have made progress!! She was perfectly content if she knew the rest of her buddies were in the stable and I have her full attention.  But she would become quite agitated if say she saw them from the round pen going to the pasture...or if she were in her stall...she would circle and call.  We worked thru it ......or so I thought.  Then last night....after well over a half hour of her just standing on the box....with none of us near her...Bucky passed by.  Bucky is a lesson horse....and Sassy LIKES him!!!  Off the box....snorting...with tail up and to the side (yes she is in season) my Sassy girl went!!!

It took some time to get her full attention back..and back up with all four hooves back on the box..(Sassy was showing us why her name is as much of  a description as a name ....   The situation was backwards to most horses who resist in the beginning of the exercise!!! In working it thru in my mind,  I should have gone and got the target and my clicker....but the change in her had turned off my thinking Outside the box while UP ON the box switch....so even tho it ended well....and is really funny thinking about now....my Sassy life lesson for this cool September evening ...was that Ending up is as IMPORTANT as Starting out thinking and being Up ON the Outside of the box.♥

   

 ~♥ Then God Created the Curly Horse ....and it was AWSOME~~~May the Curls be with you  ♥ ~