Phebes is not like Mikey, she indeed hates EVERYTHING.

Our last training ride was full of adventure on Sunday.  The soup of the day was to be concentrated hillwork, with a little flat work in between to get her pulse down and give her a little rest period.  As hillwork goes, we mostly went slow, and on a downhill turn in the trail she did one of her high amped arab charged spin backs.  Ever tried riding out a spin on a downhill?  Nearly impossible to hang onto one of those on the flat, let alone pointed downhill *sigh*.  So off I go again over her right shoulder, splat on my big fat butt into the mud.  She was ready to run off to the races without me again, but my gloved hands had a good grip on the reins and I pulled her back .  I was mystified as to what the spooking/spinning catalyst was this time.  No flapping bird to blame...OH, someone cut a piece of wood and leaned it up against a stump, it wasn't there last time.  Hmmm.....since she thought that spot was going to eat her we did uphill intervals there for awhile until she acted right.  Off we go next to the flat trotting track for a mental and physical break.  We are leisurely walking around it when across the creek some kids come flying down a trail on one of those motorized farm mule things.  Phebes detests motorized vehicles more all the time.  Her pulse monitor shoots from 70 to 165 and the fight is on.  She wants to haul for home away from that thing and her neck goes all bracey, and she's dancing around fighting for control.  I use the one-rein thing this way, that way, this way, that way, over and over.  I'm pretty much thanking God that the creek is up and the kids can't cross over and head straight for us.  We worked until I felt I had some control, and then I pointed her towards home, and she wanted to jig, so we repeated changes of direction everytime she broke gait without being asked (all the while motorized vehicle and squealing girls in the background).  We made it to the neighbor's camping area and here come the girls again across the creek, revving and squealing like crazy, so Phebes comes unhinged again.  So we do figure eights around trees until her head comes down and her ears tip toward me instead of the other.  So our session of hill work became a training session instead.  I've made up my mind that this is the way it will be from now forward.  We will ride or we will train, it is up to Phebes to make the right choice. Even if that is what we do ALL SEASON.

Monday we just had a loosening up session in the round pen.  She had worked back to back pretty hard days so I figured a few days off would be good for her.  We are going to likely be rained out today (if not we will have a schooling session), then I'm back to work dark to dark, so likely nothing done here again until Friday. 

I've been trying to curry her coat regularly to assist the shedding process.  Didn't get much fur off last night, and all the while she was so ticked that her nose was nearly pinched shut.  So....grooming became a training session of I can touch you here, there, and everywhere, and you need to be good about it.  Then I did some horsey massage, leg stretching, and tail pulling.  She seems to really enjoy the leg stretching and tail pulling, as she was stretching her neck down, chewing, and yawning, all good stuff compared to the usual tensing up and biting at the lead rope.  ~ E.G.