How manymore times Jazz? NO!
Wonders will never cease - it stopped raining long enough to go for a ride. We were about 150 yards from home when he dived left into a gateway to try to turn for home. I smacked him and we went on down the hill. For a mile and a half he was fine and then we came to a triangle of grass in the road at a three-way junction. This is where we turn for home on a short hack, and he turned for home. I turned two more lefts and we were on our way again. He tried another whip round to go home after another 100 yards, but I turned him back and carried on. So far, there was no suggestion whatsoever that he was scared of anything, these were just expressions of his intention to go home! Then he was near his bogey bridge and he started actively looking for things to be stupid about, I could feel him scanning.
I saw a delightful Little Owl fly into a hole in a tree, and shortly after that Jazz saw a fallen piece of wall and went ape trying to go home. He reared, he kicked out, and he plunged. He started to back up, so I turned him around and backed him away from home. And he fell for it. He reversed right over the bogey bridge past the fallen wall and then turned and carried on with our ride. Only 50 yards later he threw another paddy, exactly the same, only we were on a steep upward slope instead of a downward one this time. Nevertheless, I tried turning him around and reversing uphill and blow me down if he didn't fall for it again. He made one more try after another 50 yards but it wasn't as serious this time and we carried on with our ride without him putting a foot wrong again. Eight months and he still hasn't got it into his head that he NEVER wins, so there's no point trying any more! You can't help but admire the tenacity, can you?
I measured up Zip this morning and he is the same width as Jazz. He is built very different, with pronounced withers, and as a result the saddle has to be fitted differently otherwise they could share one. Since he is only three, it's now clear he's going to be even wider than Jazz. I have also dropped my stirrups another hole, but the stirrups are still just above the level of the bottom of his belly. He is a deceptively big horse already.
He was a very good boy this morning. I'd put a wider gullet plate in the saddle and also forgotten to do the girth up as tight as usual. So it didn't feel completely stable and I went to feel how loose the girth was while I was in the saddle. Ooooooooo he didn't like that! He was freaky-scared, but he still didn't do anything really daft. We did some really nice work and then when we halted I had a short lesson in "we touch the girth and we don't die because of it" before I got off. He quivered, but kept himself under control.
One feature that I really liked about him when he was a scrawny baby and we first saw him was his neck. I thought it was exceptional considering how underdeveloped the rest of him was. He now works, without being asked, with an arch in his neck all the time. And that is raising the tendons and muscles on the top, so that it is pretty stunning for an unworked three year old. I like him more the more I ride him.
Jazz's local event tomorrow is rained off so I'm trying to find somewhere to take Zip but I think everywhere is waterlogged. Never mind, I'm sure we'll get to go somewhere soon.
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 4:27 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
stopped raining for most of the day here too .. but i was pleased i didn't hang the washing out as it did rain whilst we were out....not long but enough...
Gee, that sounds like a "fun" ride on Jazz--not. I think this is where his not quite so bright brain has both advantages and disadvantages. The first in that you can constantly outthink him in his little tantrums and the second in that he can't seem to remember his lessons. Oh well.
The spooking at the fallen wall is definitely a Tucker trick, and Toby has been known to spook at such things. But, neither one of them shows the determination to go home. Instead, it's just the intent not to go past "That Dangerous Thing."
I recall one bad napper who used to limp badly on the ride out. You'd decide he was too lame to ride, turn for home, and he'd suddenly be sound as anything! He didn't keep up the ploy once he showed his hand, though, and you could finish the ride because he'd give up the limp altogether when you turned back around to go out.
Zip is going to be a big boy. Kenny does some desensitizing with the saddle and girth by slapping the stirrup leathers along side the saddle flap repeatedly until the horse doesn't react any more. Granted this is with a western saddle which makes a lot more noise, but something similar might relax Zip a bit about being touched and handled there.
Haha ONLY 8months..try 10years of still thinking they can win!
Polo looks for things to freak himself out..im sure he's an adrenalin junkie.
Totally gutted im loosing my instructor,Ryan.He's got a job in Ireland and is off next week so having our final lesson on Monday.
We were really getting somewhere for once too;(
This weather is ridiculous,we really do deserve a proper Summer after all this rain.
Nicola
it was a relief to get some dry weather wasn't it Claire?
Jean, Zip is totally unfazed by being touched around the girth unless you are actually in the saddle. He'll learn quickly I'm sure, unlike someone else we know!
Nicola OH NO! Losing Ryan when you have progressed so far so fast with him - what a disaster!
C
Perhaps a smidgen of clicker work would help something 'click' in Jazz's mind? Kind of let him know, distinctly, "THIS is what I was wanting all this time, good boy." I've used it a lot here and there in situations where the horse just doesn't seem to get something and I've run out of other ways of explaining.
Jolene I do a sort of "clicker training " with him. Every time he takes a step in the right direction I tell him what a good boy he is and I can feel that he responds to that.
If I could think of how to clicker train him to jump fences that he thinks are too big for him when we know he is perfectly capable of doing them, I'd use it like a shot :-)))
C
Nuts! Was hoping to find a quick fix for you. Too bad you don't have a jumping chute, could let him get so bored with it he'd be begging you to make it more difficult! ;-)
Now Jolene when did Jazz ever do anything the easy way :-)))) ??
C
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