The Squeaky Wheel

My new vacation vocation is working with Phebes.  Journey will get a short ride tomorrow to see how things go, just enough to stretch out, and maybe break a sweat, then monitor appetite, and go from there.  On Thursday I spent an hour in the round pen with Phebes, graduated out into the tilled up front lot, climbed onto a stump (she's too fat to ground mount), and slid myself on.  It all started out kind of rocky.  She'd willingly walk, move off my leg, and be tentative heading south, and the northern direction (away) she wanted to jig, and pull, and blow me off, and offered the head ducking, drop the shoulder, maybe I can tip the human bean off on her head maneuver.  Hmmmm....so straight lines weren't working for us, and mare of all mares is up to her tricks, and the saddle is not entirely stable with her big round barrel and my fleece pad.    Off I go of my own accord, and clip on the dreaded lunge line out in the big area.  I let her work off some of the stink on a huge circle at the canter, and then I reconnoitered. Back to the stump.  Back in the saddle.  Circles are hard.  They take more balance, more concentration, more focus.  Circles are also calming for this particular horse.  Circles it is.  She felt like a discombobulated pogo stick--at first.  I kept pushing her out with inside leg to get a bigger circle, while using some rein on the inside to get some bend in her neck, and finally it started to pull together.    We are making progress, in fits and spurts.  She remembers all of her cues, it is just getting her mind into the game rather than measured rebellion.   Phebes needs a home with a confident, skilled horseman.  She is honestly wasted here.   Having ridden her three thousand miles, I know what she can do.  Two years off means a lot of starting over. It is in some ways harder than starting from scratch.   I do love this horse, but am coming over to the place that I'd maybe consider for her a very good non-endurance home, once I have her going well enough.   Maybe.    But for now, we work, and take things a session at a time.