At A Standstill

Even though its only been a little under a week, a lot has happened since I last posted.

First and foremost, everyone should check and recheck their tack before they get on.  On Sunday, I thought my tack was sound, but as soon as we stepped into the canter and Libby pulled, my hackamore broke leaving me with no control and absolutely no stopping power.  Thankfully Libby stopped after galloping around a lap or two, and we were no worse for wear. 

Broked

Unfortunately though it seems like that day brought Libby back to her strong and unruly ways.  This whole past week I’ve had to deal with her at her worst.  To put it into perspective, I purchased a brand new Herm Sprenger Hackamore to replace the broken one, and shes already tearing through that one.  Not fun at all. 

We had a lesson on Wednesday, but it mostly consisted of me getting my arms pulled out, and us just trying to deal with her, trying different ways to calm her and keep her quiet.  My trainer kept telling me I was riding her well, and dealing with her in the best way, that it just wasn’t her day.

At that point I was so frustrated that I asked outright if Trainer believed it would make more sense for me to just put her in full training for a month.  And he told me he honestly doesn’t believe that being in full training would really progress her as much as I would want.  He doesn’t really think she’ll be at the point I want her to be even in a couple of years.  Shes just that tough.  Of course that was a lot to take in, but considering how well they’ve done with other green horses, not all easy, I think he has the experience to back up his opinion. 

Now I know Libby has gotten this way before, and she has come out of it, kind of.  But I’m at my wits end right now.  Its frustrating when you put a lot of work and time and money into something to see little results, or to not be where you thought you would be.  Its also extremely frustrating to work hard at something when Libby doesn’t seem to want to learn or contribute, nor does it seem like she wants to be what I want her to be.  Understandably this is life with a green horse, but its gets to a point where you feel like you’ve wasted a lot of time to not get improvements. 

And its even more disheartening to not be feeling well most of the time due to the Lyme Disease, and when I go out for some relaxation I am constantly fighting with her.  

Me and trainer will be speaking at length either tomorrow or Tuesday about what we should do to move forward.  But I definitely have a lot to think about.