Crabby Galena

I'm still not feeling well, coughing much to much but that didn't stop me from going on our walk. It's not about the exercise, it's about the fellowship but today since it was just Ruth, Diane and I we actually got exercise, pushing it while talking.
Mom's house has been leaking above her microwave. Fede was going to fix it but wasn't able to and tonight it is suppose to start raining. Philip got up on the roof with caulk and caulked around the vent for the microwave. Hope that does the job. Mom is in Branson so I'll need to remember to go over tomorrow morning to see if it worked.
Mark forgot his camera today and needed it for a job so as long as I had to go into town anyway to drop that off I stopped at Kroger for ingredients to make chili for Sunday.
When Karin got off work, she stopped in first here for a visit before heading out to work horses. She brought Valiant out first.

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures of Karin working with Valiant click HERE.  She was having such a good time that when she asked if I wanted to try him out I jumped at the chance.  He has such BIG movement that I was being thrown out of the saddle and that made me LAUGH!

 He just makes one smile while he covers the ground. 

 He got a big pat and a hug from me. 

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures Karin took of me riding click HERE. 

Next Karin brought out Tory. She has been working with Tory to get a more collected canter. She is getting it. 

The last mare worked today was Galena. Now Galena hates arena work. She likes going out on the trails and will plow through the creeks, up and down the hills and loves to canter the fields but take her in an arena and the naughty comes out.  She first tries to buck Karin off and if that doesn't work she tries to bite her legs.  Today Karin was going to try to just let her have her head the entire time but expected her to canter down the long side. 

 She fussed, bucked, kicked and tried to bite for the first 10 minutes. 

 Each time Karin would just sit there and ask her to move out with a loose rein. Notice the laughter from Karin. This mare can't buck very high. 

 She finally gave up, decided her naughty behavior wasn't getting her out of work and slipped into a nice trot then a soft canter. 

 She cantered nicely down the long side.  

 Karin let her rest, then picked up the canter down the other long side and again no misbehaving at all. At this point Karin gave her a pat and got off. 

We believe this is a learned behavior. More than likely she buffaloed anyone who tried to ride her in an arena and it worked. The rider would get off so she won each time.  We are not sure how long it will take to break her of this behavior but Karin is willing to work with her. She really is a fun ride on the trails so hopefully it won't be too long before she is also a fun ride in the arena.