134. Rebellion...

Spice was looking great today, she was hoonying about in the arena with Lucy and when i let her off the lead rope to join Pie and Lucy in the long green grass she galloped off so fast i thought she'd slip! So i think it's fair to say she is definitely on the mend. Hooray!

Before putting her out i got the opportunity to watch Spice play 'join up' with Lucy in the paddock she was forcing Lucy to run around the parimeter and by cantering at full speed in front of her path able to force her to change her direction - she did this on and off for a about 5 mins - it was really interesting to watch - having only ever seen Monty Roberts do it. Looking back i wish i'd have filmed it as would love to watch it again. Hopefully, i'll get to see it again soon.

After giving her half an hour or so of grazing time in the long grass i decided to do some long reining with her to see what she remembered and she was great.

I started off in the arena just doing a few manouvres backing up, stopping, turning in tight circles to which she responded brilliantly and then decided to lead her out of the gate and down to the stables. I asked Alex my friend to stay in front of her for reassurance which she responded well to made her stand for a few seconds at the bottom before asking her to walk on back to the top.

I was happy to leave it at that until Spice decided to throw a hissy fit and did a huge buck - aimed at me might i add! The problem was she could see Pie and Lucy at the end of the field in the green grass and wanted to be with them but i was asking her to go in the opposite direction. So instead of asking her to go back to the corral i decided to give her some more work for throwing such a tantrum and ask her to go down to the stable and back again (this time without Alex in front) and much to my delight she did with virtually no hesitation.

It's strange because i have said all along that when Spice isn't acting out of fear but rather rebellion (like she was today) she is very easy to deal with and i usually have no problem but when she is acting out of fear she is altogether a different kettle of fish - i guess to her winning means living and losing means death so why wouldn't she give it all she has.

Anyway, having realised that it may not be the best idea trying to make a horse do some work while it can see its best friends munching on green grass in the distance we have decided to put all the horses out together after we have got some work done to eliminate any tantrums.

Spices new nickname is now Mariah (Carey).