Dontcha love it when they make you look good in front of 'company?'
But it's only natural that she would have to act up later. Can't have you taking her good behavior for granted, y'know.
But really, if there must be brattiness, wouldn't you rather have it on just your time, and have her be fun for the kids? Maybe she thought she had done her bit for the day, and was sulking over having to do some more work. Whatever her 'issue,' she needs to get over it, and with time, she will.
Pardon me a minute while I brag on Syd . . . .
BB2K and I were working with the horses yesterday. Syd and I did a little lunging and yielding with her in harness; she did pretty well, so I decided to try hooking a couple of pieces of PVC pipe to the loops and let her drag them around. We've done this before, but it's been a while, so I wasn't sure how much of a refresher she'd need. You'd have thought we had done it every day for a week, at least . . . . . absolutely no problems at all. I told BB2K, "I think she's ready to try the drag." I have a drag/roller that I made by inserting several pieces of pipe of varying sizes into each other; the longest (and skinniest) is about 5 feet long, and the outermost piece is 4" heavyweight PVC - total weight is probably 40 pounds or so. It's useful for leveling out ruts and hoofmarks, and it makes a lot of bumping and rattling sounds when you pull it. Syd has seen me pull it around, so she is familiar with it, though I had never had her pull it before. She stood quietly while I attached it to the traces with a couple of pieces of baling twine. Since this was a new experience, I led her rather than "driving" her . . . . once again, absolutely no problems. She never batted an eye. We got the drag snagged on roots and things, and she stood still while I got her untangled, One time, while getting things sorted, the drag wound up standing on one end and then falling over and hitting the ground with a loud thump; we managed to get the traces all in around and under her feet. I know, it sounds like I was being a terrible klutz of a trainer, but this was semi-deliberate; we need her to know that dumb things happen and it's no biggie - if she's gonna wig out, we want it to happen now, and not when she has a cart with people in it behind her. We went all over the paddocks for probably 20 minutes or so. Syd was so completely unruffled, BB2K said, "you want to get the cart out and let her get a look at it?" "Sure," I said. So she brought the cart out, and with BB2K between the shafts, we let Syd see it, and smell it, and walk around it, and walk beside and behind and in front and . . . you get the idea. Then we backed Syd in between the shafts (note to self: we need a bit more practice at backing straight) and hooked her to the cart. I led her around the yard and down the driveway, and though she was a little uncertain about the whole thing, she was calm - thinking and listening rather than reacting. On the way back to the barn area, BB2K rode in the cart, and Syd was fine with that, too. We did have a little trouble getting her to stand still while we were getting her unhitched (this is Syd, after all, and she'd been very good for quite a while), but all in all, I couldn't be more pleased with her.
The cart still needs some work. My husband designed it, and a welder friend built it, but it's one of those situations where neither knew enough about what they were doing to understand how little they knew.
We have corrected some of the problems with it, but it's still going to need a few more adjustments before I can hitch Syd and actually drive her while riding in it. But for what we did yesterday, it worked well enough, and I am one happy camper!
But it's only natural that she would have to act up later. Can't have you taking her good behavior for granted, y'know.
But really, if there must be brattiness, wouldn't you rather have it on just your time, and have her be fun for the kids? Maybe she thought she had done her bit for the day, and was sulking over having to do some more work. Whatever her 'issue,' she needs to get over it, and with time, she will.
Pardon me a minute while I brag on Syd . . . .
BB2K and I were working with the horses yesterday. Syd and I did a little lunging and yielding with her in harness; she did pretty well, so I decided to try hooking a couple of pieces of PVC pipe to the loops and let her drag them around. We've done this before, but it's been a while, so I wasn't sure how much of a refresher she'd need. You'd have thought we had done it every day for a week, at least . . . . . absolutely no problems at all. I told BB2K, "I think she's ready to try the drag." I have a drag/roller that I made by inserting several pieces of pipe of varying sizes into each other; the longest (and skinniest) is about 5 feet long, and the outermost piece is 4" heavyweight PVC - total weight is probably 40 pounds or so. It's useful for leveling out ruts and hoofmarks, and it makes a lot of bumping and rattling sounds when you pull it. Syd has seen me pull it around, so she is familiar with it, though I had never had her pull it before. She stood quietly while I attached it to the traces with a couple of pieces of baling twine. Since this was a new experience, I led her rather than "driving" her . . . . once again, absolutely no problems. She never batted an eye. We got the drag snagged on roots and things, and she stood still while I got her untangled, One time, while getting things sorted, the drag wound up standing on one end and then falling over and hitting the ground with a loud thump; we managed to get the traces all in around and under her feet. I know, it sounds like I was being a terrible klutz of a trainer, but this was semi-deliberate; we need her to know that dumb things happen and it's no biggie - if she's gonna wig out, we want it to happen now, and not when she has a cart with people in it behind her. We went all over the paddocks for probably 20 minutes or so. Syd was so completely unruffled, BB2K said, "you want to get the cart out and let her get a look at it?" "Sure," I said. So she brought the cart out, and with BB2K between the shafts, we let Syd see it, and smell it, and walk around it, and walk beside and behind and in front and . . . you get the idea. Then we backed Syd in between the shafts (note to self: we need a bit more practice at backing straight) and hooked her to the cart. I led her around the yard and down the driveway, and though she was a little uncertain about the whole thing, she was calm - thinking and listening rather than reacting. On the way back to the barn area, BB2K rode in the cart, and Syd was fine with that, too. We did have a little trouble getting her to stand still while we were getting her unhitched (this is Syd, after all, and she'd been very good for quite a while), but all in all, I couldn't be more pleased with her.
The cart still needs some work. My husband designed it, and a welder friend built it, but it's one of those situations where neither knew enough about what they were doing to understand how little they knew.
