My Therapeutic Riding Student Gets A Little Less Obstinate

March 5, 2008

It was a pretty successful week for several of the students at the Pegasus Farm therapeutic riding facility where I volunteer every Monday.  The week started off with the rider/volunteer appreciation banquet on Sunday night. I discovered that several of our Monday night riders have been students at Pegasus for over 20 years! And this includes T, my very obstinate therapeutic horseback riding student I’ve told you about before. She’s been there pretty much from the beginning.

Unfortunately, I got tied up handling work and life and was an hour later than usual getting to Pegasus on Monday night. I did, however, make it just in time to take Micah’s, the 18-hand percheron,  reins and work with T.

For the last six months, Randy (the instructor) has been “sharing the love” and using me with a variety of different riders. But T is difficult, I enjoy the challenge, and I can sometimes get her to do what she’s supposed to. So this week when I finally arrived, Randy immediately assigned me to Micah with “Jackie works with T.” It was the third or fourth week in a row, and I’ve come to look forward to this assignment.

I think having a consistent volunteer (not to mention one who doesn’t take her crap) is helping T to open up a little more. Each week she smiles more and throws the reins less. And this week I saw her mischievous side.  T throws down the reins when she is angry, goofy, or wants attention. In the fall, she would throw the reins every few minutes. We used to hand them back to her and tell her stop. Since I started ignoring the behavior and making her pick the reins up herself, she’s done it less and less. For several weeks, it’s been 20 minutes into the lesson before she starts. And she’s only repeated the behavior six or seven times. Last week, she did it several times in a row and she said, “You’re being silly! Stop being silly! Don’t be nasty!” But she said it with a smile on her face, like she thought it was a good game. So I reprimanded her once and she stopped.

This week, we got her mounted and her stirrups adjusted. Before she even stepped hoof in the ring, she looked at me out of the corner, smiled a very mischievous grin, and promptly (and very dramatically I might add) threw down the reins. I handed them back, said, “T, don’t do that again. It hurts Micah. And you know better.” She only did it three more times the whole lesson.

Randy had us working on a course where we weaved cones up one side of the ring, turned around a pole, and trotted back down through the middle of the ring. T was thrilled. And she wasn’t the least bit intimidated about trotting on that gigantic horse. I asked her if she was ready. She said yeah. I clucked to Micah and he immediately picked up a nice, relaxed trot. And T’s grin spread from ear to ear.

The last few weeks, we’ve taken the lead rope off of Micah’s bit and tried to get T to do some independent riding. It’s obvious that she knows how to walk, stop, and steer, as well as understands what we’re asking her to do. She still won’t do it. So I end up having to grab a rein and direct Micah (who tends to follow me around anyway). This week we removed the lead. I told T that she had to be the driver. And I went and stood in the middle.  Micah went wherever he wanted, which also happened to be the opposite direction from which the other two horses were walking. But I just left T on her own to see what she would do. I had to step in a few times to avoid a head on collision, but other than that she was on her own. T didn’t really do a whole lot of steering, but I also don’t think she minded a few minutes to just let him walk without somebody telling her what to do or where to go.

For now, I’m evaluating T’s progress based on smiles and decreased rein throwing episodes. And based on that, I think we’re improving a little bit every week. And that is so incredibly encouraging.

Posted in Making a Difference, Therapeutic Riding