He has demolished the lorry.

Jazz loaded brilliantly today, he was in before I was up the ramp. He travelled really well down to Macc and back up again. He had been creating a fuss pawing the box when the lorry was still parked in the yard before I set off. But he was quiet on the journey and when stopped to phone a friend and later for some lights.

When I got home, he created a fuss pawing when the lorry was parked on the yard and he was waiting to get out. So I left him in there to calm down before he was let out. Calm down? He went beserk.

He had his front feet up on the shelf in front of him - it's the top of the tack locker, about four feet high! He was beating at the bars on the windows with his forefeet, trying to break out through them. He broke a partition support bar which runs across the bottom of the windows clean out of the wall and he was close to breaking the windows by the time we got the ramp open. He stopped then.

Peculiarly, once he has someone with him, or once the ramp is open, he is perfectly OK. It doesn't seem like he is panicking, it seems like a total temper at being confined when he is at home and wants to be let out. When the ramp was opened he gently put his feet down (after I'd undone the lead rope and unwound it from his front leg!) And getting out, he was as quiet as a lamb. And once we had put the partition back where it was supposed to be, he came right back and reloaded again even better than he did the first time! He ran up the ramp and was in while my feet were still on the tarmac !!!! Now what ON EARTH is THAT all about? It's certainly not a fear of loading, is it?

He didn't do more than some half hearted pawing anywhere but at home so I am pretty sure that this is just hellfire temper to be let out when he is somewhere that he recognises. Thank goodness our lorry is already 15 years old and not pristine. He has also broken the rubber sheeting on the back wall free of its mountings. Oh and he smashed Tia's mirror to smithereens of course, it's a good job I had put tape all over it for safety. To cap it all, I'd left the steps down AGAIN, when I drove off and bent them. Superhubby got it straight again with a sledgehammer but even so I feel a total prat and burst into tears at my own stupidity! I have NOT had a good morning lorry-wise.

Jazz has a number of wounds now, thankfully all superficial, which he has acquired over the course of travel training. He has only one leg, the off hind, without a scrape on it. Needless to say, he will never again be given enough room to get his front feet up on that shelf. He is just going to have to travel confined by partitions whether he likes it or not. The alternative is too frightening to contemplate.

I decided that Jazz needs to learn where he stands in life, and the weather was really nice and totally contrary to the forecast. So I took him out for a ride after all that. I tacked him up with reins on his normal bit and a lead rope on the chifney. For the first time since he started being awkward, he turned right out of the barn instead of trying to go left to the stables. He went up to the gate and stopped. We circled once or maybe twice and then he left the yard. This was huge progress.

At two points on the ride, one only 100 yards from home and one about a mile, he turned for home. Each time he did it I got off (he trots gently homewards so it's not too difficult) and pulled him up with the Chifney. Honestly, that bit is like waving a magic wand! I asked him to walk on and if he didn't I gave him a sharp tap with the dressage whip on his bum. That sent him forward every time. The first time it took 4 repetitions of the getting off, leading, refusing, turn for home game. The second time it took 3. Then he gave up. I felt him go to stop a couple more times and then change his mind. Another couple of times he did stop, but agreed to carry on when I stopped him turning left or right and tapped him with the whip gently. I am convinced now that I can crack this behaviour now I have the control that the Chifney gives me.

I think it is time for him to grow up a bit now, and start learning that obnoxious behaviour gets results that you don't like. Otherwise he will grow in confidence even more and become dangerous because of his sheer physical strength. Firm but consistent, rewards for good work, no reward if you don't try. Those are the rules from now on!

C