Overdue a hunt
Is Jazz overdue a hunt meet??? I took him out for a hack today and he was a monsterosa! He was OK for half an hour, just a little "lookie" at the snow drifts that are still piled up by the sides of the roads. But he decided that he could not cope with hearing dogs barking inside his latest "bogie house", nor the geese that he could hear, or smell, in the back garden. He didn't strike me that he was really scared, just that he was really adamant that he wasn't going any further away from home.
He did his best to defeat me, but I am much stronger than I was with a newly broken shoulder and a newly broken arm on the other side. When he went to climb the banks I hauled him round in a tight spin with all my might. That surprised him. When he went to rear I smacked him on the poll with the thick rubber handle of my whip. When he "switched off" I clunked him on the neck with the rubber handle, just to surprise him and wake him up again to the fact that I was talking to him. When he backed up I smacked him repeatedly with the whip until he stopped backing up (in other words I rewarded him for at least standing still - and I only hit him with a short whip without taking my hands off the reins, ie with no force to speak of, more of an annoyance.). Then when he refused to go forward after being allowed to stand for a while, I smacked him until he took one step, and stopped immediately each time he moved forwards at all. In the end he gave in and walked past.
Coming back towards home, he tried it with the geese again. He's often struck me that he doesn't have much sense of direction! I just did the same again, and he gave in after a few minutes. I didn't have a watch on, but judging by what time I got back home, he took an extra twenty minutes or so to complete the ride, with two serious hold-ups. So I guess that wasn't too bad!!
I'm hoping that we can get out on Saturday and head off any more tantrums for a while. We never thought he'd changed for ever, did we :-) ???
C
posted by cptrayes @ 5:09 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Probably just showing his displeasure at the boring ride you were taking him on...no hounds, no buddies to "play" with, and no jumps to bound over. What is wrong with you, eh? He's an adventure junkie....*G*
Every battle won is an aid to winning the war. Shouldn't have to be that way with horses, but they can be opinionated creatures--despite some board's insistance that they are all ready, willing, and able to please and must never be forced--who occasionally need more than a bit of "friendly" persuasion. Jazz does have a good attitude about accepting the corrections, though. (Some "people" we know would use that as an excuse to buck hard....)
He flicks a back leg out pretty hard, but only on the side he's being thwacked! I couldn't manage him at all if he was a bucker as sharp as Zippy too.
C
Comment on Tucker's shoe here...Two suspicions. The first is that the left foot is the "club foot" so it tends to grow more narrow in the heel and has a naturally different shape than the other foot. Even though Tuck had the ligament surgery as a foal his feet do not match and the left foot grows more heel.
Also, this is not Scott's shoeing, so I am not convinced the shoe is quite like we like it. AND, because this is a replacement shoe I think the farrier may have folded the heel in at the ends a little to try to keep Tuck from stepping on it again.
Not excuses, just explanation of what may have happened. Some adjustments will have to be made at the next shoeing, as I said in my blog.
Well that would explain it. I've seen several barefooter who grow two different feet because they have two different legs. My friend owns one - in desperation that she could not get the feet to match, she measured her mare's legs, to find out that one is the best part of an inch longer than the other. The upright foot is a compensation to level up the leg length!
Tuck probably knows what he's doing.
C
I didn't ride today, not feeling on top form and other things to do.
C
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