Good, good... BAD!

Yesterday's ride on Sienna (the first in about 6 days) started out good, for her having so much time off. She longed well (because I was NOT going to just jump on and giddy up), and then we jogged and did some bending, practiced stopping without throwing her head into the air, and worked on going from the whoa to the trot. We even did some long trotting, her favorite. So, as a cool down (and because I had an agenda of my own), we rode off into the pasture [to find my (3) missing fly masks].

Let's just say that the goat weed in the pasture is out of control. Sienna was pretty much swimming through it, and the ground was invisible. I had my eyes glued downward, keeping an eye out for the fly masks. A recipe for disaster, you say?

Ingredients:
(1) green horse
(1) cocky rider not paying attention to said horse
(2) eyes looking down, thus shifting said rider's balance to the side
(many) goat weeds hiding anything up to 2 feet tall

Mix the first three ingredients well and add to the goat weeds. Garnish with a surprise deer for a real kick!

Yep. We're riding along, Sienna a bit tense from probably having to wade through Possible Horse Enemy Territory, and I see something spring up out of the corner of my eye about 10 yards in front of us. My first thought is, "RABBIT!", something that every horse, I don't care who it is, FREAKS OUT at. My second thought was "I don't have a chance, but I'll try anyway." About this point, I realized it was a doe, leaping out of seemingly oblivion. I straightened up, pushed my feet down into the stirrups, shortened my reins, braced myself, said a few prayers, shut my eyes... and nothing happened. Oh, Sienna looked up and watched it skip and hop across the pasture, but... she didn't even flinch. Even as we rode in the same direction it went, she listened to me and didn't bat an eyelash.

I was amazed, and decided I needed to give her a little more credit than I do.

Until we headed back.

Sienna: "I know it's feeding time, and the other horses are over there, probably eating all the food and all the hay and it's not fair because they ALWAYS eat all the food and hay and I have to STARVE I'm always STARVING!!!"

Me: "... you're kidding, right? You just completely didn't spook at a deer, but now you're trying to jig across the pasture?"

So we backed most of the way home, with some small circles thrown in for good measure. And then we got back to the front pasture, and Sienna planted herself and said "I'M NOT BACKING ANYMORE." And I said, "You'll back until I saw you won't back anymore!" And Sienna threw her head into the air, threatening to leave the ground. And so we trotted and practiced giving her face. And tried again. Same results. More circles and giving. Try again. More fighting and refusal to back. This went on for probably 30 minutes. And then... she reared! Not very high, but enough to make me lose my cool. I HATE rearers. Probably because my old trainer called it the Cardinal Sin of horses, but I can't stand it. The idea of the horse losing its balance and falling over on top of me terrifies and completely angers me.

I think I said something along the lines of "do that again and see how mortal you are" and off we cantered, bringing her face to her butt. Way exaggerating her head set. Everything I could do to remind her that when I ask for her head, she gives it to me- NO EXCEPTIONS. If she wants to behave incorrectly, I'm going to make it hard and laborious.

I finally got her to back several times- albeit in a hurried, "I'm extremely agitated" fashion- with her head respectively lowered, and had to call it quits there.

I guess as laid-back and easy as she has been, she had to have some sort of button that set her off. Lucky for me, I inadvertently found it. I know what we'll be working on now!