His new favorite game these days is to play the victim - he'll chip in a stride before walking over the pole, which makes him kick it, so then he acts startled and offended that I would *dare* let that pole kick him. So we worked on taking Big Boy strides up to the poles. Lots of turns, changes of direction. At one point he balked and tried to chip and I asked him to walk on - well, we couldn't just WALK on...he completely launched over the whole thing...of course I was totally unprepared, got left behind and landed half on the pommel, ouch. So then he felt justified in playing the victim again - how *dare* I flop around up there when he was innocent and didn't do anything wrong? Eventually he started to soften up and we were able to spiral out off of the poles and begin work. For some reason he was more concerned than usual about the bunny tree area so we did some 10mc circles there and every now and then, crossed over the poles as we changed direction through our 20m circle. And each time, he pretended like he hadn't seen the poles in weeks. But overall it wasn't a bad ride, just a bit sticky at a few points.
However, I am EXTRA proud about his progress, as I was able to get in touch with someone (via the Fugly horse blog) who knew the trainer who started him...and actually heard of Pro. She said he was owned by two people who just paid the bills and showed up to watch him show. So while Pro was at first sent to one trainer, that trainer sent him to another trainer because Pro was "so hard-headed and high strung". This other trainer starts every horse in a sharp twisted wire snaffle and draw reins, no exceptions. For difficult horses, he throws them down, ties them up, puts a tarp over the, and leaves them in the (Texas!) sun until they give up. Then he gets them up and gets on and rides. This woman also said that both trainers are big into drugging (more than just Ace), numbing tails, tying tongues down, and leaving them tacked up in stalls for hours.
So the fact that Pro can go from THAT upbringing to where he is now - ridden in a snaffle, stretching into contact - is just amazing to me. I have no doubt that Pro was immediately labeled as a very difficult horse when he was young, but how anyone could treat my sweet boy like that is just beyond me. This means that including me, he's had 6 owners in 16 years, but at least that stops with me.
And the only tarps he'll have to encounter these days are ones that he steps on. I just remembered while typing this last part that in the summer of '07 I taught him how to step on a tarp...it took me three days or something ridiculous (he thought he was going to die in the process) but I finally got him to stand. In addition to seeing the changes in his muscle, look at my proud boy stand on top of a tarp that probably represented something awful when he was just a baby!
7 comments:
Oh wow, what a history for one horse... Pro has certainly been through a lot, and I'm glad he has such a great owner now! Congrats on all the progress you two have made!
Poor Pro :(. But glad the Friday ride went well and I will attempt to not chicken out on him today ;).
Sometimes it's better not to know the past...or at least better not to find out until you've overcome so much of it! That's not surprising to hear all of that, though - so many horses are treated like that. So sad.
That really makes your progress with him mean so much more - you should be very proud of yourself and Prometeus.
WOW look at the change in muscle on him. I'm proud of him standing on that tarp. It is very neat that you got his history.
I remember you trying to get him to walk over the tarp. He would put one foot on, and then refuse to do it.
He has grown up so much to have been able to walk over it.
Poor Pro, at least he has a great home now!
What a sweet Pro boy in his happy new home!
It really makes me angry that people will do such things to horses. Grrr. I am glad that Pro has you now, though, and is making such HUGE strides!
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