Part 59 – More Pleasant Days

Kert surprised me by doing a characterisation of Saadi.  I really don’t know why he did this – but it was relatively accurate.

Kert says when Saadi is pushed to do things he is feeling misused – he wants to do slow steady work.  He can perform when the work fits.  He would like to be treated like a King’s horse – to live with dignity.  He also feels he is happy to be ridden.

 

He then says my horses are in bad condition – that I’m trying to do my best – but it’s a disaster! But it’s typical of the part time horse owner.

He tells me I should build stables for them, brush them each day  – feed them three times a day – look at what I’m feeding them.

He suggests I start with Saadi first – some short lungeing and eventually put a saddle on and do some gentle riding.  He also suggests that I try to reduce my horses to two….

Now all this was said in a very different way to my previous experience.  He seemed to genuinely want to help me.

Some of this was helpful – and in blogs to come I will talk about what I did.

This threw me into more confusion.  He was being so nice to me.  Why couldn’t he be like that all the time!

He also asked me whether I now understood what he had said about Ducati.  Did I have any questions.  I smiled and said I was fine – no problems – and I was – I was quietly smiling at the thought of the mustard gas.

So why was he behaving like this?  Was he worried he had upset me too much?  I doubt it.  Was he trying to confuse me?  Maybe…  Was he just in a ‘nice Kert’ phase? I don’t know…

Maybe it was his way of calling a truce.

And it did make me feel better in some way – but cautious – like walking on eggshells.

We also had another saddling and riding demonstration with the same horse – Snap.  The horse was still worried about the girth and it took some time in the arena.

Here are some more notes:

“Kert  says that if these things cannot be overcome he will never successfully be ridden.  He lunges him with just the saddle pad – then decides to take him to the corner of the arena to saddle him.  He says some good things – like never be angry with the horse – if the horse is not calm with the saddle there will be tension and stiffness when riding – always look for another solution.

He reminds us he is only doing this now as the horse will be going home – but normally there would be a much longer time before this happened.  Once again Jaime is helping him – he reminds her to stay grounded – keep her shoulders low, appear strong – and breathe.

When the saddle is finally on, Jaime is then ready to mount.  Kert reminds her to just sit with loose long legs – then gently she moves off around the small arena – he corrects some of her movements – keep her head upright, her elbows close, move the pelvis from left to right…”

It was just a short session, but I was pleased I got to watch it.  The horse was calm and willing.

This was almost the end of the course and surprisingly  Kert invited the Level 3 students to his house for a farewell dinner……

COMING UP -FINAL FAREWELLS

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