# Adsum's World



## Adsum (Jan 5, 2021)

Welcome to my world.

Here is my introductory post. I do not feel like I have that many exciting things to contribute, but this thread is a view of my world: accountability, rambling, and horses, of course.


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## Adsum (Jan 5, 2021)

The barn where I board my (parents') mare has a small enclosed arena but many long trails. We use the trails for most of our work; we use the arena for our tackless work. The barn and the trails are connected via a hilly, gravel road. My farrier and I definitely notice a (positive) difference with her hooves. I may ask for a hoof critique tomorrow. There is still an improvement to be made with her diet, so her hooves are not exactly how I would like them yet.

I have been doing a lot more "advanced" groundwork lately: asking her to navigate hills, squeeze between trees, step over obstacles, step/jump down/up river banks, walk through shifting footing, line up to trees (for mounting), et cetera. She has been good: she is surefooted, confident, and has common sense.

I took her on a trail walk on the "stream loop" (the trail loop that follows a stream) on Monday, 4 January 2021. I do not often give her treats due to her restricted diet, but I was gifted treats for Christmas. I did not want to waste them, so it was a treat-laden training day.

First, we worked on squeezing through narrow trees. We first started with moderately wide openings then gradually decreased the space. We eventually found some extremely close-together trees. They were smooth, flexible trees so were like pool noodles. Her head could barely fit through the opening, but her body could not come without some effort. She looked at me confused as if to say, "Why would I go through there when there is plenty of space to go around?" You can tell a horse what to do and how, but, unfortunately, you cannot explain why. I want her to be okay with narrow spaces and things brushing and bumping against her sides. Perhaps we were pushing the limits, but I insisted. She daintily stuck her head through and one-leg-at-a-time slid her way through. Treat. I asked her a couple of times more until she confidently and consistently walked through the trees without objection. Last time, she was rewarded with a treat and we walked away.

Since the trails are in the woods, there are bound to be downed trees that need to be stepped over. She is usually good with this. This time, however, she got stuck. Her right hind hoof somehow got stuck between two branches. She started pulling. I feared that she would hurt herself, so I told her to stop so that I can "save" her. She kept pulling and pulled herself free before I could do anything. It was good that she was not hurt, but it was not good that she kept pulling after I told her to stop. It was then that she told me that we needed to work on hobbling some more. She is hobble-trained, but it is my faulty because I haven't hobbled her in a few months. We usually only work on fronts, but we should also work on sidelines.

We eventually made our way down to the stream. My favorite part is sending her down and up the banks. We started with small, steep slopes, then we moved to drop-offs. She had few objections, which is both surprising and not surprising. She usually has at least one balk on the first drop-off, but we have been working on it a lot, so it should (and did) get better. Treat. We work our way up to higher and higher drop-offs, capping at an estimated 2 feet (60.96 centimeters).

We tried something new; we went off the beaten path and crossed to the other side of the stream. There was a large fallen log blocking our path so we had to go up a hill to go around it. We found out that there was a reason that this was "off the beaten path": it was very difficult terrain to navigate. I wanted to go back across the stream, but I did not want to backtrack. This caused us to be "stuck" up a hill. I scouted out for a way down. Most bank options were just way too steep, some 89+ degrees. I eventually found an "okay" bank. It was a little steep but nowhere near as steep as all of the previous options. We have navigated steep hills before, so I was not worried. We would just go down diagonally. Me, leading, went down in one easy step: falling. Oof. I had not realized how slippery that bank was. I picked myself up thinking, "There is no way that she is coming down here. I am not asking her to come down here. I do not want her to slip and fall on those rocks, on me, in general... I'll climb back up (somehow), and we'll go somewhere else." Too late. She started coming down without prompting or hesitation. Great. Her front legs propped straight out as she decided to come straight down the hill. There was no stopping her. I needed to get out of her way. Now. She dropped down into a half-sit and effortlessly slid down the hill unharmed. Great! She popped back up and looked curiously at me as if to say, "See? That was not so hard. Why are you shaking?" I 'bout broke my neck getting down that hill, and she slid down like a kid sledding in the snow. Treat. Good horsie. Glad we're not dead.

We went back across the stream but still stayed close by. We worked on walking through shifting footing - mud. I selfishly did not want to walk through that so I did some sort of lunging motion instead of leading her through. At first, she panicked. She did not know it was mud. She tried to hop over, then she tried to rush through it. I just kept asking her through. After a few rounds, she stopped, inspected, and started pawing. She quickly walked through it. That was much better than before but still not what I was looking for, so I kept asking. A few rounds later, she walked as calmly as one can while walking through knee-high mud. Treat. We continued until she confidently and consistently walked through without rushing. On the last round, I asked her to stop while still in the mud. She stopped and shifted around a bit. Once she stood still, she got a treat and then we left.

We had to wash off the mud so we worked on drop-offs again. She did well and played in the water. We were originally going out to a state park since it was such a nice day, but at the very end, I slipped off the bank and into the water. I did not want to walk around in wet clothes, so I decided that we should just go back to the barn. Besides, we already had plenty of "action". I groomed her, gave her a good-bye treat, and put her out to pasture.


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