Our major goal for Veronica is to help her to be responsive instead of reactive. Over the next weeks we will work to get her feeling 100% confident with the saddle before anyone needs to ride her. She is working on relaxing into a one rein stop from the ground and doing so without a brace. She needs to accept people walking up to her and her feeling like she’s grandma’s horse rather than tiptoeing around her. She needs work on changing eyes in her front quarters. We are doing this by getting the flag transferred from one side to the other while she frees up her feet. We are bumping her up to the fence and will get her used to flags and ropes thrown over her while she stays calm and relaxed at the fence. We can also start standing up in the stirrup from the ground and throwing a leg over her while she is bumped up to the fence. Since she is more of a reactionary mare, we will help prepare her and only when she is comfortable we will put the first rides on her. There is no point rushing her to be a riding horse and having panic in her with a rider. She will have some trouble with a rider but we hope to prepare her so that it is a minimal as possible.
Veronica still needs to look more to the person for support than running off in a panic. She needs to feel of the person and realize that no one is driving her to run. We can support her through this but she also needs us to allow her to find peace on her own. We’re working with Joel Conner on helping her change eyes by drawing her off the panels and making a full circle in front of the person, changing eyes, and heading back to the rail without panicking. This seemed to be a great way of helping her find more peace and relaxation.
