Two 'Okay' Rides

Flex boy!

So I did manage to get to ride Thursday and Friday like I hoped! Thursday I got out there a tad later then I liked but we did get a good ride in, although it was dark by the time I was done with feeding and all! 

I think he really has caught on to the vertical flexing and I don't automatically get a brace against the bit each time I ask for it now. There is a awesome place where there are posts stuck in the ground, three on each side about 8 feet apart in two rows, (it was supposed to be support posts for a barn they never built) and we have been using those to weave in and out of, do serpentines, circles around, etc. Friday I even used them as a place to practice our square halts in between. Its a great area!

I have also started using the round pens in the middle as our place to practice our circles at the trot. I have realized I haven't really worked on bending with him at all moving. So I started to really ask for a bit of bend to the inside of our circles around the pens and when we go around the posts. Gotta get him soft and bendy all over!

Now, I usually don't have a bad part of my posts. Like when my perfect pony isn't so perfect. Well today I do, boo.

So the first thing I was not pleased about happened Thursday. I had my oldest (6 year old Chloe) who wanted to come in and brush Harold with me before I tacked up. Well ever since Shelby got attacked by him that time two years ago when he was eating (Still An Animal) I really haven't had the kids near him at all. Chloe picked up a brush and started brushing him at his shoulder/leg and I saw this look come over him and then he made a move towards her like he was going to bite! Sigh. So I quickly made an eh! sound and kinda waved my hand at him and he went back facing forward. I was already standing between his head and shoulder just in case something like this happened. Chloe had no idea what was going on or she would have high tailed it out of there. But I really wanted to know what was wrong with him and see if I could figure out how to fix it. Well he tried one more time and I jerked on his rein and after that he seemed to be fine. We did both sides. I could still see he was a little different than normal though.

I've been thinking about it on and off and I just don't get it. Does he just not like kids?? Has he been abused by them before or something? It's kind of crazy. I never would have thought he would act like that. I haven't seen any of this behavior except while he is eating or being brushed. And this is the first time I've seen it at grooming time.

And to go possibly be related the next day,Friday I was spraying some conditioner in his tail and mane. He was totally fine until I made a move toward his head to spray his forelock and he flipped out - ran to the end of his lead rope, reared up and jumped forward until he finally backed up again and stood there having decided I guess that he couldn't get free. GEENA HORSE. He was completely freaked out about my spraying him in the face. Which apparently means someone has either smacked him around a lot in the face or sprayed him in the face/eyes a lot previously.

He has always been a little weird off and on about his ears, and also bridling lately he has been a bit touchy, but totally fine after the bridle is on.

After this episode I untied him and worked him some more on the lead before tieing him back up and doing some desensitizing with the spray bottle and then my saddle pad. I sprayed him all over around his face but not on his face. Then I took his saddle pad and flapped it all around his head and above his back etc until he was totally chill about it all. I was really sort of trying to get him to have another 'episode' if he was going to and then work him through it. But he never even got close. I guess it was a panic first instinct sort of thing.

And all of this happened after I had worked him quite hard on the line doing lots of ground work and lunging for respect stage 1 and 2. And lots of cantering for a change. So it wasn't like he was fresh.

He did pretty well with all his lunging except for the cantering part. Which is my third thing I wasn't real pleased with. We don't canter a whole lot and it showed out there on the end of his lead. He was all over the place, didn't want to stay cantering, etc. Which it was kind of asking a lot of him to do it out in the middle of the pasture with uneven ground and quite a short line. He did put in a pretty good effort for all those circumstances, really.

I tried the sending exercise with him Friday! He did pretty good although I could see him looking at me like, what is the point of this?? He also did a lot better going to the right then left, not sure if it was something I was doing, or him. Maybe both, lol.

Well thats about all for now.

Still An Animal...

Not sure how to start this post, wish it was a happy one like they usually are.

So I was reminded again this weekend that no matter how much you love our horse and think you know their temperament, they are still an animal with their own minds and sometimes they just do stupid crap.

I guess I need to elaborate.

Friday afternoon the girls and I went out to the pasture to fish with my oldest's new fishing pole that the 'Easter Bunny' brought her, ;) After that we walked back up the the top pasture where Harold and Chatterbox are and decided to go ahead and feed them for the afternoon and while Harold was eating try and get some more winter hair brushed off him.

After I got some hair knocked off I grabbed the hair spray and got him sprayed down. I was holding Shelby (my 16 month old) most of the time letting her help me brush, but put her down to fly spray him. He of course wiggled around a bit and acted like he was not happy about being sprayed like he always does. When I first started spraying again this season it took me a few times to get him to stop leaving his food and walking off when I started it. But he has gotten where he really just flinches a bit and shuffles his feet now. (His head/neck area is a different story but more on that in a minute)

So I'm spraying him while he is eating and Shelby of course wants to help. She wants to do/help with everything being a curious little toddler. So I let her have the bottle to act like she is spraying him. She moves towards his head for whatever reason and WHAM this happens:

Notice how the horse looks completely calm and compliant, not a care in the world, and then all of a sudden DEATH TO THE CHILD!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, that was my horse. And yeah that was my screaming kid laying flat on her back in the dirt. (But that WASN'T me smiling and laughing like that mom, good grief)

First I snatched her up and checked her over real quick. I was sure I was going to see blood pouring from somewhere, a chunk taken out of her face, SOMETHING. But thank GOD almighty somehow he missed her. I don't know if he got the fly spray instead, never really connected, or what. I did find a cut on her hand later maybe from the fly spray being ripped out of her hand or something, not sure. 

So after I established she was okay and just scared I ran him off from his grain, hollering and yelling at him. Hopefully he got the message that his actions were NOT acceptable.

The husband had finished mowing at this time and I passed the munchkin off to him while I got my halter and stick to put the fear of God in him. I worked the mess out of him for near 30 minutes. Lunging him around me in a small circle making him change directions often, backing him up fast and long. He was blowing hard and sweating a ton by the time I got done with him. I was still so angry.

So needless to say he didn't get to finish his supper that night.

I'm really at a loss right now. Did I judge this horses temperament wrong? Was this just a 'perfect storm' type situation with the grain+fly spray+little someone = I need to defend my food/self, but something he would never do in any other situation?? If you remember right I have had issues before with him and his grain, pinning his ears etc. But NEVER biting or acting like he would. Even when I took his food away while he was eating it. But he DID do the exact same thing to our miniature schnauzer a few months ago when he got even a little close to his bucket. And knowing that, I had always really watched my girls around him when he was eating. But I never saw anything but a soft eye and no concern. 

As for the head issues, he definitely doesn't like the spray around his head, which is normal, most horses don't. But he has always had a little bit of an ear issue, and when I first started putting the fly spray on his ear (by spraying it into my glove and wiping it on) he had a pretty big problem with it. He has gotten a ton better though. But apparently he thought she was going to spray his head?? And her being small he had no respect for her authority and tried to bite her. :shrug: I really don't know.

Sigh. Any thoughts, previous experience, etc with something like this would be great. I think I'm too close to it at this point to be objective. My mama mind was just off the scale angry and scared, and it was hard to think like a horse person. For several days after I couldn't get the scene out of my head. I really haven't been out there since. Needless to say the girls won't be coming in there with me anymore. But if I can't trust my horse with my kids, really he is no use to me...

On another note. My mom and dad are getting out of horses. I know, I was pretty shocked too. I know she never has time for them, but I didn't really think she would ever actually give them away. 

Well dad offered them both to me for free, if I wanted them. I wish! Which I don't really want moms mare, I'm just done with mares and shes gaited. But I can't think of anywhere that would be okay for Cisco to go without it breaking my heart! He is basically my baby. I was the first one to halter him, put all his training on him, first one on his back, etc. He is almost 15 this year and never been anywhere else but my mom and dads living with his mama except for maybe a few weeks here and there, or a few months when he was out at my house. (If you don't remember Cisco, check out this link to his blog I wrote briefly, The Unspotted Spotted Saddle Horse)

13 years ago...we were both babies!

The problem is I don't have any pasture of my own, and already have barely enough borrowed for the horse I have now. I keep hearing rumors that the people we are renting the pasture from are about to move back and build a house on it, but haven't hear anything concrete. So if that happened I'd really be up a creek. Plus I bet the inlaws would have a hissy if I told them I was bringing over another horse, even though they have 3 completely useless horses on the same pasture they need to get rid of. The other one is a mere shadow of his former self and never gets anything done with it either. (Chatterbox)

So anyway, I guess thats enough whining for now. I'll update later...