I don't know where I get my ideas from, but thank goodness I have a saint of a baby Thoroughbred to always pull through for me.
It was a beautiful evening yesterday, and I had this urge to throw on our "jumping tack" and go for a nice conditioning hack in the cross-country field at SP. Katie agreed because we have been looking for opportunities to school the boys alone and away from each other...she headed to the dressage ring and I headed to the field. We picked up a trot almost immediately and he was being very good...a little tense and look-y, but behaving nonetheless. Did have a major meltdown spook at the round bales (gah), but after walking up to them and snorting at them, we were okay. Trotted all the way to the bank, which has schooling elements for several levels...I pointed him at the section where you can just trot up and down. He hesitated but went...ears pricked, enjoying himself. So I thought, what the heck, let's find something to pop over. There was a small maiden sized fence over by the paddocks, so I headed for it at a trot. He hesitated, again, but then gave me a stellar jump that was much more promising than what he's shown me before in the arena. We landed in a canter, came back to trot and headed towards it the opposite direction. He jumped much better this time, right out of his trot stride and landed smoothly and calmly. At this point the horses in the paddocks were running around snorting like goobwads, so Aidyn started getting distracted and neighing...we popped over this fence again and I got the oh-so-brilliant idea to find a 2'3" fence to jump. About two strides out I panicked and figured my baby TB had no chance...but he surprised me and jumped nice and round over it. He did misjudge the width a bit but it was a MUCH better reaction than I thought I would get! Finished up over a little helsinki and up/down the bank again before we trotted towards the barn..by this point he was worked up a bit and I needed to do some 20-meters around the ditch complex to get him calm and listening. We trotted through the water to cool off (and he loves the water), and despite being brutally attacked by Papa Goose, we headed towards Katie and Jay-R.
Such a good boy. He is so brave and so willing. I feel like we might be able to do this eventing thing after all. :)
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Hello, terrible twos!
Well, technically it's the terrible fours, as Aidyn is quickly approaching his fourth birthday on May 30. That combined with the spring sillies, his ever increasing fitness level, the new feed he gets at night, his new (and better fitting) saddle, and the very aggressive deworming schedule he just went through has left me with a new horse..one that runs from me in the field, runs from me under saddle, etc. Not sure who this horse is, but he's not the sluggish baby TB I brought home in August!
We've been doing a lot of riding at the Blue Barn just due to time constraints, and I've noticed Aidyn being a bit more rushy than usual...combined with lots of ducking behind the bridle. Nothing fun about flying around on a horse whose mouth you cannot feel...translate to Friday evening when we trekked over to Stone Place. We usually ride a bit through the cross-country field on our way to the outdoor, and Aidyn has recently decided that everything over there is scary...things that never bothered him before. So, naturally, he decides to take off on me for no apparent reason...he has *no* mouth when he's spooking, so thank goodness we hit a wet patch of ground and he decided it wasn't worth the effort to keep going. From that point on, he whinnied and spooked and ran forward and ducked behind the bridle and basically ignored every aid I gave him. Frustrated, I jumped off and attempted to longe him a bit...not a good idea with a particularly short longe line and an arena full of jumps. Got back on and just concentrated on getting a quiet trot around the arena. Every time I felt him start to relax, he would find something else to scoot away from. When another horse came in the arena, he mentally shut down and it's pointless to fight with him after that. Headed home with Jay-R and Katie, who had a great ride in the dressage arena. We got home, it got dark, I got a longe line (per advice from Katie who has dealt with the terrible twos before when Jay was 6) and proceded to longe him for about 20 minutes. We ended up leaving the barn quite late...but at least he finally paid attention to me and longed well.
After pondering his behavior the entire drive home, we concluded that a flash noseband might help a little bit with the control issue...and the head flipping crap that he has recently started. Longed him BEFORE our ride this time, he was quite laid back and listened to voice commands very well. Was halting quickly, which is really good considering he usually ignores the halt command as long as possible. Rode over to SP with Jay-R and another OTTB gelding named John (and his owner, of course) and things went well...got to the arena and he started neighing. Did my best to ignore it and concentrated on just relaxing my hands and posting nice and slow. Um, hello hunter horse. He stretched down and poked his nose out and trotted around like we were hacking. He was a completely different horse than the day before! Walked and trotted all over the arena, doing changes of directions, half-circles, etc...then began incorporating poles and small cross-rails into our path...just trying to get him used to stepping over things and not getting excited about it...he just trotted over everything without changing his trot rhythm at all. Then he stood and watched Jay-R for a little bit, and walked home like a gentleman.
So, I guess it's a good thing that my horse is not a psycho all of a sudden. He's just feeling good and isn't quite sure how to express himself...so for the time being we will be incorporating longing into every pre-ride ritual, and working a lot less with my hands and more with my seat. Hopefully this will encourage him to seek contact again and not run scared from my hands.
*sigh* He's such a goob.
We've been doing a lot of riding at the Blue Barn just due to time constraints, and I've noticed Aidyn being a bit more rushy than usual...combined with lots of ducking behind the bridle. Nothing fun about flying around on a horse whose mouth you cannot feel...translate to Friday evening when we trekked over to Stone Place. We usually ride a bit through the cross-country field on our way to the outdoor, and Aidyn has recently decided that everything over there is scary...things that never bothered him before. So, naturally, he decides to take off on me for no apparent reason...he has *no* mouth when he's spooking, so thank goodness we hit a wet patch of ground and he decided it wasn't worth the effort to keep going. From that point on, he whinnied and spooked and ran forward and ducked behind the bridle and basically ignored every aid I gave him. Frustrated, I jumped off and attempted to longe him a bit...not a good idea with a particularly short longe line and an arena full of jumps. Got back on and just concentrated on getting a quiet trot around the arena. Every time I felt him start to relax, he would find something else to scoot away from. When another horse came in the arena, he mentally shut down and it's pointless to fight with him after that. Headed home with Jay-R and Katie, who had a great ride in the dressage arena. We got home, it got dark, I got a longe line (per advice from Katie who has dealt with the terrible twos before when Jay was 6) and proceded to longe him for about 20 minutes. We ended up leaving the barn quite late...but at least he finally paid attention to me and longed well.
After pondering his behavior the entire drive home, we concluded that a flash noseband might help a little bit with the control issue...and the head flipping crap that he has recently started. Longed him BEFORE our ride this time, he was quite laid back and listened to voice commands very well. Was halting quickly, which is really good considering he usually ignores the halt command as long as possible. Rode over to SP with Jay-R and another OTTB gelding named John (and his owner, of course) and things went well...got to the arena and he started neighing. Did my best to ignore it and concentrated on just relaxing my hands and posting nice and slow. Um, hello hunter horse. He stretched down and poked his nose out and trotted around like we were hacking. He was a completely different horse than the day before! Walked and trotted all over the arena, doing changes of directions, half-circles, etc...then began incorporating poles and small cross-rails into our path...just trying to get him used to stepping over things and not getting excited about it...he just trotted over everything without changing his trot rhythm at all. Then he stood and watched Jay-R for a little bit, and walked home like a gentleman.
So, I guess it's a good thing that my horse is not a psycho all of a sudden. He's just feeling good and isn't quite sure how to express himself...so for the time being we will be incorporating longing into every pre-ride ritual, and working a lot less with my hands and more with my seat. Hopefully this will encourage him to seek contact again and not run scared from my hands.
*sigh* He's such a goob.
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