Update on Nilla Coloring
Back in September, I did a post on Nilla’s color: What Color is this Mule. In the post I mentioned that Nilla has zebra striping on her legs, but I wasn’t able to get a good picture of them. I’m pretty sure no one believed me. The other night I was taking some pictures of her in a saddle I was trying out and saw that her zebra stripes were really standing out. So here’s the proof:
Bareback Riding on Eugene
After trying one saddle and not liking it (longer story to come), I asked my husband to lend me his and tried it with Nilla. He was riding, so he had to hop off and untack Eugene. By the time I was done trying his saddle and then my old broken one again and then spending forever debating, it was late and we had to get going because I had dinner plans with a friend. So my husband decided to hop on Eugene bareback.e had been saying that he probably wouldn’t do it for a long time, but figured a short trip in the small arena was probably pretty safe. I held Eugene for him to get on and walked him around the first lap just in case, but Eugene was great.
Print Making
I was doing some print making with a friend and mules featured heavily of course.
Jumping Lizards
The toy lizards remained not scary so I bought some little solar powered swinging frog toys from the dollar store. Those were also not scary so I upped it by buying a small remote-controlled toy car.
Which was properly terrifying. We started with backing up. And then progressed to some hopping/spinning. Thankfully, no full on rearing like we had at the clinic.
Regular and slow speed for your viewing pleasure
Thankfully, this was exactly what I was looking for. Something scary that was moving and making noise in the jump that I could control so that I could practice getting her over it. And I did finally get her over it. Although the approach required careful examination:
And massive over-jumping of the tiny little cross-rail:
The next attempt was much more relaxed:
Her fear of moving things inside jumps isn’t solved, but at least I’ve finally figured out a good way of re-creating the issue so that I can work on it.
Has anyone else had a training breakthrough recently?
Glad that you found the solution to work on Nilla’s fears. And yes I have had a couple breakthroughs lately. 🙂
(also, I hope that you received my email).
You’ve been having tons of breakthroughs
Glad something finally worked for the jump. No major breakthroughs, but I actually haven’t even sat on a horse since the beginning of May.
That’s a long time off
That print is so cool!
thanks, it was a fun project
Smart mule! She really is so cute, even spooking away from the jump.
ha well here’s hoping that she won’t have to deal too much with moving things inside jumps very often, even if she’s making progress there! (also – another thing you might try tho if you are serious about fixing that spook are shiny pinwheels on a good windy day lol). anyway – i love those leg markings! those types of markings and dorsal stripes are some of my favorites haha
I love the markings too. That’s why I was excited to finally get a picture of them. I actually have another jump decorated with pinwheels and she finds that scary as well, though not as terrifying as the toy car jump.
Ooh, love those prints!!
No breakthroughs lately, but if you can figure out how to convince Mia to just go straight let me know! LOL Yay for training progress, at least now you can work on it. Love the print!
Build a shoot and ride only in the shoot. Straightness achieved.
Lol I wonder if they would allow a chute in dressage tests….
You could invent it as a new sport.
I love the prints!
I love printmaking! Glad you had a breakthrough on Lizardgate!
Lizard gate is perfect. That’s what I’m calling it from now on.
Love those prints!
What a smart guy Eugene is!
And glad Nilla did well with the moving toy car! LOL
My current lesson horse is green but super chill about almost everything (plastic bags, active welding, front end loaders) except two things: getting her ears touched and excess rider movement when they can’t sit her huge trot. We’ve been working a ton on eating peppermints and carrots after ear grabbing, and this past week she was almost calm about getting her bridle over her ears. Only mild giraffe stance and we hardly needed the mounting block (she’s taller than me and she knows it). Next goal is flopping around on her back until she loves that too.
I’m happy Eugene and Nilla are doing well! Those prints are cool too! What will you put them on?
I was just making them as a test case for my friend, but I may have found a use for the process.