Nashville

Nashville has earned the reputation of being very amiable to new riders and able to be put into a clinic or taken on a trail ride by someone she’s just met. For this past Joel Conner clinic, we were able to let volunteer rider Scott get on her the day before the clinic and easily fit into the class without trouble. LOVE this mare’s willing attitude and it was a treat that she enjoyed working with Scott. We look forward to him continuing to ride.

The week following the clinic Nashville went out on a few trail rides through the park to help the uneasy horses with their first trail rides. She is a steady leader when needed, follows without worry and comforts the uneasy horses with her steady calm presence. She does not become tight or bothered when the others act up or get nervous. She is truly a gem on the trail and READY to find a family looking for a great partner!

Scott shared with us his experience getting to know Nashville:

She went very easily in a unified circle and did great bending and yielding hind quarter and front quarter. Clearly, she has had a lot of work there. When I bent her while mounted, she was very sensitive to bending both left and right. She was very sensitive to yielding her hindquarters. She can get better but I felt she tried and understands what is being asked. I think she can reach more with her hind. She struggled a bit with the front quarter yield but that also may have been me trying to get our time down when I was asking for her to yield her front quarter. We got better between Friday and Sunday.

She seems to be drawn to the gate when in the arena, so I will work on getting her to work when she is at the gate and letting her rest when she goes away from the gate. That seems to affect her anytime we were walking or trotting in a circle. On Friday she was cutting corners, moving off the wall, and not very responsive to my “feel.” I think by Sunday we had an improvement there and she stayed on the wall and yielded to my leg and stayed in the corners on each turn.

I felt great being able to get Nashville into a soft feel at the walk, trot, and lope. I had to work at my release and need to improve there. When asked, she goes to a trot and lopes easily. At times she can be “dull” so I will work at getting her more responsive to my “feel” so she goes easily. I also noticed that when she was working in the arena her disposition changed. She was listening to me. At times I messed up and asked too much or did not give to her and then she got braced, but that was my fault. I’ll keep working at that. Overall, a great three-day clinic for us!

Nashville and I participated in all three of the riding sessions in this month’s Joel Conner clinic. I’ve been working with her for about 2 months and have really enjoyed getting to know her. It was great to get to take part in the clinic with her and develop new goals in our work together.

Nashville is a sweet, level-headed mare. One of my main areas of focus now is getting her to be more punctual in response to my requests for upward transitions, as her demeanor is more low than high energy. Joel helped me in working with picking up her energy under saddle and getting her to be more timely when I ask her to pick up a gait. She picks up a soft feel well and is very responsive to seat and rein aids, and also to leg aids for lateral movement. She does well under a rider with quiet hands. Forward momentum is her (or rather, my) biggest struggle, although once she’s in a gait it’s relatively easy to keep her there.

Since taking her on, Nashville and I have been working on increasing muscle and balance. I want to improve her balance in general as she’s still learning how to properly use her body under saddle, but also to help rectify the problem of swapping leads behind at the lope. We’ve been backing circles both in hand and under saddle, riding figure eights and serpentines, doing hindquarters/front quarters exercises, walking hills on the property, and utilizing trot poles. She still swaps leads when on a smaller circle such as in the round pen or when bending to a stop, but during the clinic she held her leads all the way around the arena. I counted that as a minor victory. Now she and I just need to incorporate more focus on transitions during our rides together. I’m excited to get to work!

Nashville and her volunteer rider Casey A took part in the last Joel Conner clinic. Here’s what Casey had to say about the progress that Nashville is making:

Nashville did very well during the riding portion of the Joel Conner clinic. At the last clinic, she was very concerned about the close proximity of other horses, though she was safe and reasonable with all of the energy. During this clinic, she demonstrated marked improvement with her comfort being near other horses, as she was much more willing to move forward with energy and feel. She now moves consistently on a soft feel at the walk and trot, transitions up and down all gaits off of the rider’s feel, and she is more balanced with the hind quarters/fore quarters exercise. However, she continues to swap hind lead at the canter. We will continue to work on strength building exercises, and we’re hoping to get her out on the trails soon!

SAFE Volunteer Rider Casey A has been working with Nashville and rode her in the riding sessions of last weekend’s Joel Conner clinic. Here’s what she had to say about it:

I rode Nashville in the riding portion of the clinic all three days. Joel put the first couple of rides on her about a month ago, and we’ve had about 15 rides since. She is so soft and responsive, and she learns really quickly. She moves up and down all three gaits through a feel, so this weekend I started to pick up a soft feel, halt, and back up. She was initially really concerned about being in close proximity to other horses in the clinic, but that significantly improved by the end of the third day. She does have trouble holding her leads at the canter in the hind, but as she develops strength and balance, I think this will improve. She is a very sensitive mare who requires clarity and fairness from her rider. If she feels stuck in her feet she gets very defensive, so we’ve been doing a lot of ground work to help free her up. Today we went for a walk around the property, and she did great!