# Lucky's story and journal



## LuckyLady (May 21, 2009)

Ok, wow, it's been a looooooooooong time since I opened this diary ... and never updated it  (shame on me). I don't really know why either...

So here we go, I'll just start where I left off:

Lucky went to that trainer in August 2009. She should have stayed there for 2 months and first everything was fine. The trainer started lunging her and she did really well. But after 2 weeks when she started riding her the problems started. My formerly so nice and well-behaving girl would start to bolt, buck and rear under the trainer!!

Well, one reason for this may have been that the saddle didn't fit quite correctly (which we found out when having her checked by a saddler after she started misbehaving). But another reason sure was that those two simply didn't get along. This trainer, as good as she is (trained my fiancees mare and they got along well enough with each other), is a pretty "stubborn" person. Everything has to work the way she wants it, without room for any compromise. But Lucky simply isn't that kind of horse. She doesn't just "work". She's a horse you need to discuss things with sometimes until you find a way in the middle, that's ok for both of you. From there you can start working towards your goal  ... But the trainer wouldn't see that and keep on pushing her even after she showed clearly that the things she demanded were NOT ok for her at the moment (no matter what the reason... be it the saddle (and I really think, that's the main reason she started to disobey) or be it simply that she didn't want to do something).

Well, long story short. We quit the training after 1 month (2 weeks lungeing and 2 weeks riding ... more or less).

Back home I had a horse that had really improved in lunging (at least something positive to take out of this) but that, if anything, dis-improved in riding.

Of course we got a new saddle after this episode (finding the perfect one, was a little odyssey itself *sigh*) and started training at home again.

I also found a chiropractor to look her over after that and who gave us riding lessons from time to time (not very often as she's from Germany and only coming to Austria a couple times a year).

Well, the past 4 years it's been ups and downs. Sometimes we would improve, sometimes we would go back a pace or two. Especially cantering is a problem for us ... or at least for me ... right now.

There was an incident about a year ago, when we had one of our rare lessons with the german trainer/chiropractor. All went well until she asked us to canter. Lucky just didn't want to. First she started running at a trot. Here I would usually make her walk and calm down before trying again, but the trainer insisted she cantered. Now. ... NOT a good idea, and I know I should have known better but at that moment I didn't think about it and kept on trying to get her to canter. ... Well, what shall I say? She bucked me off (I've never been good on staying on a bucking horse, anyway) and I fell on my back so that I had the wind knocked out of me. I needed a couple minutes to recover during which my fiancee got a hold of Lucky and rode her a couple rounds. ... I got on myself again after I had my breath back, just to make sure she wouldn't learn that she could end work like that by herself.

Well, she hasn't bucked a single time under me ever since ... but I haven't dared to try a canter again either. I somehow can't get myself to do it even though every time I get off her I wish I had tried and even when riding her I'm thinking about it... and always find excuses NOT to do it ... I know they're just excuses and that I should trust her and myself and just get over it and do it. But somehow I can't.

Well so much for riding... that's where we're at right now.

As for ground work:

right after she got back from the training stable she was the best horse ever to lunge! She would react to voice commands alone. No whip needed. Not even as "decoration" in my hand or on the ground. But sometime in winter she would start pulling outside on the lunge and sometimes bolt.

We worked with the german trainer on that as well, even got a Cavecon (which she recommended) for lunging and every time the trainer was here the pulling out seemed to improve and she wouldn't bolt. But it wouldn't last long. ... As soon as I tried to lunge her alone she would fall back into her old behavior and start pulling out again.

As for the bolting, I guess at some point she must have realized that I simply wasn't strong enough to hold her if she really put all her weight and strength into it, so every time she felt like running free she just took off.

I had a friend lunging her for some time then and she tried it with him, too, but soon had to realize that HE would hold her. So when she behaved lunging with him, I would try right afterwards and most times she would behave with me, too. 

But she still pulled to the outside, no matter who lunged her.

So, of course I was totally (positively) surprised, when, for the first time in a long time, I lunged her myself from the beginning a couple weeks ago and she would neither pull on the lunge nor bolt (not even a hint of either!)!

I only worked her for 15 minutes or so, but I was soooo happy with my girl!! 

Maybe I should take this as a sign to start cantering again, too?


As for her overall behavior or character. Well of course she has changed a bit there too in the past 4 years.

She's still the nice, curious, funny, playful horse I got 5 years ago, but she also got more ... how to put it? ... cautious? I guess she picked that behavior up from my fiancee's mare, who would spook at any- and everything if she felt like it (not that she's really afraid of things, but sometimes she just likes to find an excuse to be spooked, jump around, etc). Well Lucky still doesn't get spooked as easily as the other mare but if you compare what she ignored or investigated curiously at age 4 and what she eyes with suspicion now ... well ... she used to be a lot "cooler" a couple years ago!

Ok, that's it for now. 4 years put in a not so short post on a forum


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## LuckyLady (May 21, 2009)

Pheewww I haven't been here for quite a long time due to various reasons. Honestly I just didn't have the time to spare (got a new job - well a new company, I'm still doing the same thing  , had some private stuff to deal with etc...) and I think this is the right place to start posting again and giving everyone who's interested an update on how we're doing 

Sooo... what happened in the meantime?

Lucky and I have come quite a long way since I last updated this journal 

My fear of cantering has gotten a lot better over time. I kept trying little by little and I took lessons with other horses. But what I was missing most was the possibility to take lessons with Lucky. I didn't want the German trainer anymore as she was so ignorant to what Lucky and I needed and it's not that easy to get a mobile trainer in my area to come to our stable for just 1 person/horse. So we mostly kept on working on our own with more or less success. The worst part lately is my seat/posture.

Luckily we now have our own trainer right at the stable  She's the "new" girlfriend of the stable owner - let's call her J. (well "new" because she came here already 3 years ago... but as I haven't posted anything in that time... that's new). We got to know her quite well (she used to work as a riding instructor before she came here) and as she doesn't have a horse of her own, and I liked her quite much, she started to work with Lucky whenever I couldn't (this is a good thing for both of us: I have someone to work with Lucky and she has a horse again that she can take care of and work with as well...). They're getting along really well. About 2 months ago - I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier - I asked her if she would be willing to give me riding lessons and so we started our lessons about once a week... sometimes more, sometimes none. It really helps A LOT! My seat already improved a lot at least at a walk and trot and we are working on cantering as well. It is fine enough when she is lunging us, I just need some more confidence in cantering alone.

Lucky herself is just great. 
We have no more problems lunging her - no pulling on the lunge line, no bolting nothing. The worst she does now is bucking and jumping circles around you while lunging... that's rather funny, actually!
Also the riding has improved a lot! She still has phases/days where she would like to just run but she's always behaving nicely and not really acting up - maybe trotting a little faster or walking a little faster than intended, but always in a way that we can work with.

In the meantime she even has a riding student now (not me  )! Mind you, had someone asked me 1 or 2 years ago, whether I would agree to letting a complete beginner train with her, I would have asked that person if they're crazy!
But let's start at the beginning: This student is a friend of the stable owner's. He had no interest in riding until very recently, when he bought a horse for his step daughter and wife and the stable owner put him on his own horse and led him a few rounds around the paddock. That's when he wanted to start riding.
The original plan was that he learns to ride at a walk and trot on his own horse (a trotting horse - how are they called in English?) and only learns to canter on Lucky. But their horse got injured and now has to stay inside the box for the next few months. So he started to learn everything with Lucky. And she's really doing great with him: she takes care of him and is really patient when he is doing something wrong and needs to repeat it I don't know how many times. 
He's being trained by J, so it wasn't hard to agree to at least try it. She knows Lucky as well as I do and she is a good trainer - I've seen both for myself 

Of course, Lucky isn't anything like a usual schooling horse - and I would never want her to become one! She's not the right horse for a complete beginner to ride without supervision and I would never want her student to ride her alone or go trail riding with her. That kind of experience he can get with his own horse once he is healed again. But during those lessons she's really doing great with him and I'm so proud of her 

Speaking about trail riding, we had a really nice and relaxing trail ride on Sunday - which was the best way to end our vacation


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## LuckyLady (May 21, 2009)

Well, a little update here:

We had a great weekend and a great riding lesson on Saturday! 

For the first time in a long time I really felt comfortable catering with Lucky and I managed to sit the whole time (usually I always got lifted out of the saddle slightly, unless I grabbed the saddle with one hand to steady myself). 

Here's also a picture of my little clown ?. She wanted to carry that piece of hay from the stable to the riding arena and wouldn't let go of it. She tried to eat it and managed quite a bit of it but finally the wind carried it away...


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## GrumpyPony16 (Mar 3, 2017)

You've made made a lot of progress over the year which is really great, I find the gaps of time between when you write in your journal quite funny sunce you jumped from 2013 to 2017 XD 

I'm glad you found an instructor to help you both, its hard to trust a trainer with your horse when you know your horse very well and I'm glad you got your confidence back! I had a fall about 2 weeks ago whilst jumping and it has knocked my confidence a little so I know how you feel


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## LuckyLady (May 21, 2009)

Yeah those gaps ? I'm not much of a consistent writer... I start something, then life happens and I forget about it... and some day I find it again and continue (not just on here, but also with my story writing and other things).

Thanks, yea a good trainer is a great thing but really hard to find. I think we made more progress in the past few weeks than in all those years before finding that trainer!


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## LuckyLady (May 21, 2009)

Sooo, a little update again 

We had a great weekend with finest weather and Lucky was happy, too!

We had to do the stable this weekend because the owner had some work to do where he had to stay over night. It's a nice change. I really like the work and taking care of all the horses (and ducks, chicken and the dog)! 
When we arrived on Saturday morning we had a little surprise, too:
The stable owner had to leave on Friday afternoon, so his father took care of everything Friday evening and Saturday morning. So when we arrived, we found that the horses were a bit mixed up. Lucky was on the wrong paddock and another horse (our breakout king) was happily grazing in the garden. ... they (lucky and the breakout king) switched paddocks when they were let out that morning and as the horses seemed happy and content enough he simply let them be. And of course it didn't take long until that one horse managed to get out of the paddock (again). We switched them back after riding Lucky... they all didn't seem to mind one way or another (there are only 5 horses at our stable right now and they all know each other).

As for riding:

We could not have a lesson this weekend as our trainer wasn't here, so we did some work alone. Mostly walk and trot but I also managed to do some canter on my own  not much just a circle, then along the long side of the arena and another circle on Saturday ... and 2 circles and one long side of the arena on Sunday ... I still don't dare to go around the whole arena at once. I also tried it from a walk this time and it works much better for me than to transition to a canter form a trot. Lucky still tends to run into the canter with me from a trot and I just cant sit THAT trot properly (she does it correctly with our trainer though).
I think, I'll suggest to my trainer to work on walk-canter transitions for now until I'm more comfortable again with cantering.


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