How Not To Do Things

Work is/has been crazy for me, and I was out of town again too, which meant that Kachina got a full two weeks off after the clinic. It's not ideal for sure, but Kachina doesn't generally do too badly with time off so it's not the worst thing either.

I went out yesterday to get back into things, and I present you with the steps you should absolutely not take to give your horse an effective training session after time off:

Step 1 - Get Your Car Stuck

- in the last week we had over a foot of snow, followed by warm temperatures that caused it to disappear last night. I went to park in my normal spot at the barn and found that the gravel had been replaced with deep sucking mud underneath what looked like an innocent puddle. My car still bears the mud splatters from the desperate fight for freedom.

Flying home on Monday

Step 2 - Let Your Horse Get Loose

- I had to go to my trailer to grab out a shedding blade while Kachina was tied at the hitching post. On my walk back to her, I watched in slow motion as Kachina started tossing her head. The quick release knot in the lead rope held firm but the knot holding my rope halter closed slowly slipped out. I was walking slipping and sucking as fast as I could through the mud but I couldn't get there in time. Kachina made a dash for her friends and hay the second the halter fell. She galloped back to her pen, sending all the horses she passed into a frenzy. Luckily nobody else was around and I caught her again without incident.

"Uh-Oh guys, she found me and she doesn't look happy"
Note: snow replaced by mud

Step 3 - Give Mixed Signals While Lunging

- I didn't have a whole lot of time, so I just brought Kachina into the indoor to lunge her in her halter (now tied extra securely). We were just getting in some productive work when the line got caught under Kachina's foot and she jerked herself to a halt. She was clearly wondering what she did to deserve such an unpleasant yank and she spent the rest of the session trying to keep 5 feet away from me while I tried to convince her that it was okay to move out. 

Step 4 - Lock Your Keys in the Barn

- After leaving Kachina out and cleaning up, I had just shut off the lights and locked the door to the barn when I realized that my purse and my car keys were still inside.

I'm hoping all of my ineptitude stacking up in one day means that I can appear at least halfway competent for the next few rides. Sorry Kachina.