# Stuck With Sorrels



## BarrelBunny (Jan 15, 2012)

Go figure, I posted this thread and then promptly forgot it, lol. I suppose I'll update it so I can look back in a couple more months and see the progress I've made! 

Kit Kat has been doing amazing lately. I've been riding her, eh, around once a week (I've saddled her up about 6 times now since I've had her). Even though her knees are closed and she is technically two and a half, I'm not a huge advocate about starting them before they're three. There's just not much left to do with her on the ground! When we are saddled, we've been working on her transitions and her overall handle in general. So far, she neck reins, moves off my legs, she's light in the mouth and stops off my seat. I have a solid walk, trot, lope, too. 

Our favorite exercise lately has been Craig Cameron's square exercise. You set up four cones in a square, and the object is to ride around the edges, 
making the lines straight and the corners sharp. When you want to change direction, you just kind of loop around the closest cone, then ride straight down the middle to the farthest cone from you. It has really helped her with shoulder control, rating my seat and her transitions, too. In the four times we have done it, she already knows the pattern and I can work it without ever having to touch the reins anymore. So. Pretty sure it's time to move on!

I would really appreciate ideas for exercises just to help with her handle overall! 

After we do our exercises, I've been taking her on a short trail ride (always a different one, but lets try not to remember what curiosity did to the cat...). So far, I've only gotten one "big" spook out of her, and I don't even have it in me to blame her considering I jumped, too! A few birds flew out of the brush about a foot in front, and just to the side of us. Kit Kat sucked back on her hindquarters and ducked to the right, kind of like a cutting horse. She took a deep breath, then moseyed on forward again like nothing happened! I was super proud of her, considering it was her first trail by herself (I don't have anybody to ride with me; I have ponied her a couple of times before off my other mare). 

I haven't been doing a whole lot of groundwork as of late. Actually, I completely gave up on desensitizing ever since I broke out the plastic bag, and instead of spooking she tried to eat it (repeatedly). She stands stock still for fly spray, doesn't mind my sweatshirt covering her eyes and ears and my sibling's big bouncy ball is fun to chase after it sails over her back. It took her about a week to learn how to be tied and stand patiently. She would bite the tree to get it to move, rub on it in a vain attempt to sway it, and when neither of those options worked, she attempted to dig it up from the roots. Okay, actually, it took an incident with a bees nest (I couldn't see it on the ground) to get her to relax while tied. She bit the nest, got stung, STILL didn't pull back, and then turned me into a human kite as we left the lead rope dangling from the branch of the tree. Haven't had a problem since! Trailer loading is a non-issue; you sling the lead over her back, point into the trailer, and she's in before you can say, "Load up." The farrier will hopefully be coming out the weekend after next; I only see her avid imagination, intelligence, curiosity and lack of maturity being a problem...a pretty big one, actually. I mean, come on, what can possibly go wrong with Kit Kat, the farrier and thirty minutes of standing still? Ha.

Hmm, what else..? Oh! Her cold-backed bucking is gone. She actually doesn't even tense up anymore. I started just climbing right on instead of giving her the opportunity with groundwork first. Granted, she broke in two on me a couple of times (which was SCARY as all get out because this filly bucks HARD), but I didn't make a big deal out of it, and she moved on. Actually, last night I put a halter and lead rope on her and loped off bareback! In hindsight, it wasn't the smartest thing to do on a two year old, but she didn't have a problem! Kept her head and neck level, stopped off my seat, and I let her graze for about an hour before heading back home. A herd of deer scattered around us and she didn't so much as bat an eye. She felt like an old, broke cow pony. Let's not trust the green two year old too much, shall we?

Since I haven't talked about her personality too awful much...let me explain, lol! This horse is the GOOFIEST animal on the planet! I swear, she's more like half dog, half human. And I'm loving every second of it! Oh, the stories. Okay. One day I decided to graze her in a lawn chair. Good idea, right? WRONG. Kit Kat got itchy, so she pushed into me chest first; go figure, my legs were crossed like a pretzel, so I wound up rubbing her chest with my feet. Apparently it felt so good, she just had to knock me over. She then promptly picked the chair up with her teeth and ripped the arm off! This filly has "treed" my dogs on the porch for attention; she continually pulled "Bailey's" tail with her lips until he'd look at her. Speaking of the porch, we have a metal trash can sitting in the corner; every single time (without fail) we walk past the porch, she HAS to rub it with her nose because of the loud noise it makes. If she's not tied, she WILL try to follow me into the saddle house. She's tried to follow my mom into her car (didn't go too well). If my stepdad doesn't rig the chicken coop's door a certain way, you better know she's going to be climbing inside and terrorizing the chickens by throwing their stuff out the door! This filly has more personality than dynamite explodes -if that even makes any sense, lol!

Anyway, I absolutely love this filly. I am very excited for next year when I get to ride her more often. Before long, we're going to start hauling places so we can soak up the experience! 

I'll look for some pictures to upload here in a minute!


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## BarrelBunny (Jan 15, 2012)

Pictures of my goofy Little Miss Kit Kat!


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## thispaintisonfire388 (Jan 14, 2015)

She's positively adorable! She seems so curious and willing to learn too! OMG I will sooo take her off your hands because she's such a horrendous horse!! XD <3 I love her already!


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## BarrelBunny (Jan 15, 2012)

thispaintisonfire388 said:


> She's positively adorable! She seems so curious and willing to learn too! OMG I will sooo take her off your hands because she's such a horrendous horse!! XD <3 I love her already!


Haha, thank you! I absolutely love me some Miss Kitty. Haven't updated this in awhile...a LOT has happened since then!


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## thispaintisonfire388 (Jan 14, 2015)

BarrelBunny said:


> Haha, thank you! I absolutely love me some Miss Kitty. Haven't updated this in awhile...a LOT has happened since then!


You should really do more updates on her!! I love to see progress with other people since I currently make my own! How's she doin? Is she being a turd? Because I REALLY am willing to take her off your hands!! XD 

Hopefully I'm not missing the updates somewhere else!!


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

This journal has been closed due to prolonged lack of participation by the author. Journals that have no active participation by the author for a period of time greater than 18 months will be considered abandoned and will be closed until the author asks for them to be reopened.


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