I was sort of figuring that the weather this week would force me to keep Kate's vow of not riding until Gayle had time to give one of us a lesson. But I'm going to be horseless for a week because of a trip for work next week and the ring was in great shape last night and the rain had stopped... So I rode!
He started out being an idiot. He over-reacted to every little cue. A soft box with my inside leg resulted in jigging and/or his haunches spinning out. So I put him on a circle and spiraled in and out a couple times. What I noticed was that he was much less freakish when he was on the small circle, but freaked out at about 15m+ or when doing the turn on the haunches. So I put him on a bigger circle and checked his bending. The goober was totally locked up in his head/neck - asking him to yield to the inside rein got a set jaw and a "no way". So I'd ask, tell, make him yield to the inside rein. If he didn't soften on the first two his head got pulled to the inside until he relaxed. After about 10 minutes of this in each direction he was starting to soften and reach down and chew some. Ok, it was more an angry gnashing of teeth, but his jaw was moving! I let him trot a little and also asked him to go by the bunny tree. If he freaked out about the tree we did the inside-rein softening on a tiny circle until he'd walk past the tree without coming above the bit before going back to the 20m circle/figure 8/whatever. At the end I did some work asking him to lift his back from my leg or the whip and he was back to his previously normal, happy self.
After the ride was over I rubbed his neck/poll some because Kate noticed it's looked funny and he dropped his nose to the dirt and just stood there looking like he was in horsey-heaven. I don't think it's entirely a physical problem (more likely his mental problems aggravated a physical problem) but it never hurts to have a professional check so Kate's going to get Gayle to see what she thinks when they have their lesson next week.
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4 comments:
You're such a trooper for riding! It rained on Friday and I bet the ring is slop today from yesterday's monsoon. Green pastures though, right? :P
I'm definitely looking forward to Gayle's thoughts on the state of his body. I think it was likely a combination of bad behavior leading to a little out-of-whack-ness in his body, which led to more bad behavior, etc. A big ugly spiral. But we'll be back on track soon!
Wow, glad you got to ride! I hope Pro gets straightened back out soon. I'm glad the ride ended on a good note with Pro happy!
My pasture had just gotten dried out enough that I would have been able to ride in it, then it rained again. Now I will be back to having to haul out again to ride at all for a while. Oh the perils of not boarding at a better place, but the rate can't be beat!
Glad you got to ride. I can't wait to read what Gayle has to say. It does sound like he is aggrivating his physical issues though.
I'm glad you got to ride! And it sounds like you did a great job working through Pro's issues. Looking forward to hearing Gayle's opinion!
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