Intention

I had a change of plan today. I was going to ride in the school but as it was a nice day I decided today was the day we'd see if Sammie fancied venturing out alone. What was interesting is that my intention was most definitely there. I planned to get on and up my energy big time. So I started to build the energy while I was tacking him up.

Bearing in mind Sammie really does not like going out on his own at all and can plant for England when the mood takes him and the fact that his field mates were in the barn (which is normally enough for him to decide it's not such a good idea), I was setting myself quite a challenge.

I refuse to beat and kick him like some people do when the horse won't budge. People might think me soft and him stubborn, but whilst I'll give him a wee tap I positvely refuse to get into a beating match that I've seen so often. We haven't been out on our own for ages. I won't go to the Common on my own (it would take some time to be found if you came off) and this has meant that we haven't had to go out on our own.

So I got on and really whizzed up the energy in my body and voice, poor Sammie didn't have time to think he just shot off. I had no rein contact at all. He went trotting off away from the barn, down between the scary houses, past the scary geese in a very forward frame of mind with me praising him to the hilt. My aim was to get to the pond field and ride him there. We made it. I halted and gave him a big treat before setting to work.

Then I had one of my "I wonder?" thoughts. After riding for about 20 minutes I contemplated going back out of the gate and turning left away from the yard instead of straight over. I built up the energy again, we trotted out and kept trotting. YM was coming up the lane on another horse (normally a planting moment for Sammie if he sees a horse he knows), I said I couldn't stop and just kept going. I hadn't thought where to go when we got to the end of the lane, but quickly decided to go up round the fields behind the showjumpers' place.

And Sammie just kept on trotting. We had a bit of a walk then another trot followed by a small canter up a hill. Then we strolled home and Sammie had a snack of Hawthorn on the way which seems to be particularly tasty at this time of year.

Now I don't know if all this was because we hadn't done it for a while and he was in shock (although he didn't seem particularly stressed) or whether it was my intention and energy or of course a mixture of the two. I think it also helped that nobody else was around to 'help'.

No doubt we'll have our planting days again and I would never push him and get him into a state. I'm certainly not going to whip and boot him either. We'll just have to see how it goes.

I really did try and banish all doubt from my mind as well so maybe that helped. Maybe it was just that Sammie was having a good day; I don't know. All I do know is that he was a very brave boy today and he got heaps of praise (and an apple!).