Almost total success :-)
Jazz has been for another ride to MacDonald's car park and it was a very, very successful journey. He is clearly MUCH happier in the restraints when he is travelling and they help him a lot. He has also totally given up trying to break them, and his only sign of discontent now is to paw fairly hard and pretty often. So much so that he broke the drainpipe covering the bolts and I had to use a WOOF boot as a temporary, but very effective, replacement. I thought they were for horses' legs not lorries' legs, but there you go! My concern that he would learn to evade having the partition shut and the ropes put on were unfounded and he shows no sign, either of that or of being in any way reluctant to load.
I left him alone some of the time and it made him paw worse, but nothing more than that. I'm now satisfied that we will be able to travel him with two on board, and also that we will, in a month or two, be able to leave him to stand on the lorry while we school Tia. Thank goodness!
I was beginning to be concerned that I was going to have to sell her to concentrate on him, because I couldn't see how I could train two if I was having to do separate journeys. This way, we can do it my favourite way, which is to book a huge indoor school with a full set of showjumps for 90 minutes and have 30-40 minutes with each one and time for an unhurried changeover. (Oh and guess what, there's another MacDonald's on the way home :-)))) Since the 2007 rule book arrived yesterday, we're already thinking of the first events of next season :-) It cheers up a dull winter no end!
The only down moment of the trip was that I was in the middle of cladding the post with the WOOF boot when, guess what - yes, he smacked me full on the back of the hand with his foot. The air wasn't blue, it was purple with red spots in. You wouldn't want to know what I called him! It hurt like hell. It is now fine, except for tying bows in shoelaces or undoing knots when one of my fingers is excruciating. Still, as Tommy Cooper would say, "don't do it then!".
To cap an extremely successful morning, Tia was grand in a short schooling session and is making definite, unmistakable, progress with her canter transitions.
I'm off for lunch now to reward myself for all my hard work.
C
posted by cptrayes @ 12:21 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
ouch!
Your poor hand. I hope it gets better quickly. Arnica?
And yippee for the Jazz success! Aside from the little pawing incident with the post and your hand, it sounds like a rousing victory.
I am so glad to hear the plan worked. Taking both horses out together will be good for both of them and good for you. What a relief that you finally found a solution.
I love it when the competition calendar arrives. It brightens up the winter months with heady anticipation.
Do you think he feels somehow "shut down" (in a beneficial way, not a negative way) by being unable to react in a violent, physical way - and hence his adrenalin flow is not continually increasing along with his physical response? Somewhat in the way a distressed baby oftentimes finds comfort in being firmly swaddled, I was thinking ...? Strange boy but glad it seems to be sorted.
Michaela
My hand is fine today, just a bit blue. It must have been a bruised nerve yesterday to cause that much pain and to be all better today.
Michaela I think you are spot on. The more he bumped into the ropes, the happier he got. Each time we went over a pothole or stopped or started or anything else that made him move, and he rocked and "hit" the ropes and they held him, he got a bit more confident and a bit less worried, until finally he leant right into the ropes and the partition and stayed steady on his feet.
I've been to my local farmer's store this morning and bought horse food. While I was there I asked for caribiners that would hold a rampaging bull. They were very amused when I told them what they, and the 27 metres of blue rope I also bought, were for :-) But they had some caribiners and they are perfect. For the non-mountaineers amongst you, caribiners are spring clips that have no swivel and where the clip has a notch in it so that it pulls against itself if strain is put on the clip. The ones I have bought would hold a 2 ton bull, so they ought to hold Jazz. They are big and chunky and will be easy to use with gloves on or with cold/wet hands, so they are perfect. I'm chuffed to bits with them.
I'll be fitting them tomorrow and then I hope to persuade Superhubby to go showjumping with me on Wednesday. It's dependant on the weather as I can only get an outdoor arena on a Wednesday.
No-one's working today because I have relatives here on a Christmas visit, so no blog today.
C.
Have you ever used Rescue Remedy? I had a pawing horse, and gave her 10 drops in her water bucket the night before a journey and the next day she was so quiet I stopped the trailer to see if she was OK. I used it for a bit with her, then gradually stopped it and she continued to travel well.
I know that you might not believe in it, but sometimes these things work!
Judith
Hmm - I wonder if he has leant on something for support during a rough journey AND IT GAVE WAY ... and so all the time he has simply been looking for something that wouldn't give way, no matter what he did ... not that he can do much now anyway ;) Oh how I wish we could understand spoken horsish!
Michaela
I have friends who use Rescue Remedy Judith, and they swear by it. I didn't realise that you could give it to horses too. I think we're fine without it now but I would have tried anything this time last week. Tomorrow we are off to the place that caused the massive ructions last time we got there. We'll see how he goes.
Michaela he has certainly, right from the start, given the impression that he is used to being able to break out of places. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he had bust up the lorry that imported him!
I've waved the relatives off and I'm about to go and refit the ropes with clips now.
I had to buy more horse food - his lordship is picking at the general stock mix I was forced to buy yesterday. Tia loves it, but it's 17% protein and lower fibre and I think Jazz knows it's too rich for him. He's not picky with his food, he's a gutso, so something isn't right about it for him. The normal stuff was in stock this morning, so I have got 6 bags of that for him and Tia can eat the other stuff.
Back to riding tomorrow. Can't wait!
C.
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