Frustration to Triumph

After several weeks of the "new Justine", new as in not showing frustration, no crying, complaining, sassing back or a whinny attitude, the old Justine tried to make an unwelcome appearance. Winnie was full of "spring stupid", her leg was healed and she was "good to go", as was Justine not having any school today. Both wanted to go fast and be silly. However, to get ready for some shows, instructor Jolene had them working on a lot of trotting flat work and polishing up details. Both horse and rider (rider first) became annoyed and frustrated. It is amazing how Justine's emotions transmit through and are amplified by Winnie. The picture on the left is perfecting 20 meter circles at the trot. Paying attention to details like "rider elbows and hands, get horses hind end to engage more and not drop a front shoulder, get her to soften her head, and oh yeah post properly too and don't fall off". The pic on the left was when things were going well but the frustration was about to erupt. Fortunately the "evil twin Justine" made a brief visit, and after some reassurance from the instructor as well as Justine realizing her emotions and taking a moment to get control things returned to normal. Justine did some large exhale exercises and started to relax and what a riot, Winnie would blow/exhale which means the horse is relaxing. After that they both were much softer, smoother and controlled. The pic on the right is reward time and time to face fears. Some horses a reward is to stop, but Winnie's idea of a reward is to give her something to do and the faster the pace the better. Justine has been cantering up the long end of the arena with the instructor there to grab a reign if needed. Okay, I think that's a hoax, 1,200 lb horse coming at 120lb instructor at 15 mph, my bet is instructor gets out of the way or gets dragged. When Winnie and Justine approached Jolene at the corner, Jolene's voice went up a few octaves as she positioned herself to grab Winnie and instructed Justine how to get her to slow down, she jumped out of the way as Justine turned Winnie and in a laugh said, "look out I'm telling her to go, I'm going all the way around!!!!!" The made a few circuits, then Justine faced her fear, she turned Winnie around, and asked for the canter right in the location where she fell and broke her arm almost one year ago to the day. Horse and rider had a great time. If Winnie could laugh she would have been laughing with Justine. It was great for both of them that the lesson could end on such a good note. Then was Dad's turn to take a lesson. That's a lesson in stupidity (rider) and frustration (horse).