Dorkbrain strikes again !
As I turned Jazz to ride him out of the yard this morning, he was dawdling so I tapped him very gently with the whip behind the saddle to say "come on, wake up". It's not uncommon for me to ask for a little more commitment to going out on a hack. This morning, though, it was a big mistake and terrible mistiming. Unbeknown to me, he had spotted a twig, OK almost a branch, just over the other side of the road immediately outside the gate. I pressured him at just the wrong moment, and he freaked badly. His heart was pounding so hard that it was pushing at my heels. He spun and ran to go back to the others and I had to pull him up very sharply to stop him getting to the galvanised gate across the yard. He's breasted that gate before and it was a risk I wasn't going to take again, so I got off and led him out of the yard. I got on in the road, then rode him back into the yard past the twig and back out again.
He was wired then, and when we came across a road sign that had only just been put out to say the road was closed further along, he freaked again. I tried to back him past it and he was having none of it, and beginning to work himself up into a right stew, because the farmer on the left was wandering about on the hillside opposite and he didn't know whether to be more scared of the sign on the right or the moving figure on the left. I couldn't face the fight today, or the wait, so I got off and put the curb chain on really tight, led him past it, got back on, and rode back and forth past it a few times.
A little further on we were being followed by a large pickup, blocking the road behind us, when Jazz spotted the actual road closure point and spun madly for home. I yanked him up really hard, because it was that or jump the van or climb the bank. That seemed to shock him into his senses and I turned him and he went right up to the signs, and then completed the rest of the ride really sensibly.
Jazz is still Jazz!
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 8:50 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
It sounds as though you must have quite a reputation with the locals. Thelwell for grown-ups!
Well, better you than me. Sorry, but that is one scary ride. Poor Jazz. When his mind goes on him, it really travels. His flight instinct is very strong and overcomes all common sense.
At least you know about it and are prepared to cope with the outbursts. Glad you took the safer option of getting off, though. It doesn't sound like something you can always handle from the saddle--at least not now. Hopefully training will eventually give you more control over his instincts.
I keep remembering a Podhajsky story from the Spanish Riding School about how he had to sit on his favorite stallion while a heliocopter flew into the arena in front of them. It was the ultimate test of a dressage horse as the trembling, terrified stallion stayed on his aids and stood to accept a floral presentation. Horses can be trained out of their terrors.
If you find the secret, let me know. I am still looking for it. *G*
Glad you came back unscathed.
Well done for keeping at it sounded terrifying but he came right in the end. Although all our horses in the last week or so seem to have the wind up their knickers I think they can feel spring in the air, even though there is snow forecast over the next few days
Exciting stuff as always but you take care
Anne
Since I dress us both head to foot in flourescent yellow, we are well known ER !!
It's impossible to blame him for it Jean, because his fear is totally real and not an excuse. He can't fake that pounding heart. The secret with him is when to treat it as a try-on and when to pander to his fear. Get it wrong, as I did when I didn't realise that he had seen the twig, and he simply implodes.
Anne he's not hard to stay on, he just spins and runs. With a pelham he is easy enough to control as long as you don't hit him to make him go forward, when he climbs the banks. I get the impression they are feeling spring coming as well.
C
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