Trish C
Well-Known Member
I KNEW it was too good to last. 
He travelled too well, behaved too nicely when he arrived at the new yard, was the picture of manners and charm with everyone new he met, was an angel to lunge/free-school at the new place the first time, behaved way better than expected when I rode him there for the first time.
Today when I went to ride Monty-bloody-Knobberts he had a suspiciously hoof-shaped gash on his side, right under where his saddle would be. He was the tiniest bit twitchy for me to touch it, so I decided to play it safe (HA, ironic!) and lunge/free school him again instead of ride.
I often (but not always) combine lunging and free schooling, as cantering on the lunge is a step too far for him at the moment. Also he loves loose jumping (takes himself over any fences I put up without any guidance whatsoever - I normally spend longer than anything persuading him to stop
) so decided to pop up a little fence for him. We have done this scores of times and he has never once acted the wollox, he's always been so good, and he showed no signs, during our little session at the new place the other day, of being otherwise. I lunged him for a short time and he behaved perfectly, got all of our goals acheived and done well, then turned him loose to have a run around and he did so, popped the jump happy out a few times and then without any warning....
.... barged straight through the fence and p!$$ed off down the lane. The fence is - sorry was - a big fence. He managed to snap a vertical post at the bottom, and the horizontal rails snapped with it. I'm not quite sure as it was one of those 'happened a bit quickly' things but I think he half thought about jumping it and by the time he'd realised what he was doing he was committed and had no choice but to carry on through it.
He just trotted off up the lane to the gate to his field and stood looking at me. Luckily the bloody sod seems to be fine... retrieved him no problem (he even put his nose into the headcollar, think he may have a sense of guilt), walked him round the school (in hand) a few times afterwards, hosed his legs down and checked him out all over, no sign of lameness or even a tiny graze, so he'll prob just be a bit stiff for a couple of days. The wood didn't shatter, just broke without too many shards, and THANK GOD it seems he somehow avoided all of the nails.
Great impression to make on the new yard owner. Apologised profusely to her, helped her to do a botch-job on the hole in the side of her beautiful arena, then asked her numerous times to make sure she puts every penny of the repairs onto my bill. She was lovely and understanding about it all, said she'd check him again later and told me to just come home and have a stiff drink. I feel absolutely awful, I honestly never thought he'd do anything like that Horrified at the damage he's done to her arena, what he might've done to himself and that he's done a really super job of making a complete arse out of me in a very short space of time at the new place 
I've turned from the angry and upset phases into the in-shock-thank-god-he/no-one-was-hurt phase and am now arriving at the worrying about him phase. May have to go and check him again tonight
Stupid bloody ignorant knobber horse. He's lucky he hasn't got serious injuries, if not from the fence then from me afterwards
The joys of horses, sigh
He travelled too well, behaved too nicely when he arrived at the new yard, was the picture of manners and charm with everyone new he met, was an angel to lunge/free-school at the new place the first time, behaved way better than expected when I rode him there for the first time.Today when I went to ride Monty-bloody-Knobberts he had a suspiciously hoof-shaped gash on his side, right under where his saddle would be. He was the tiniest bit twitchy for me to touch it, so I decided to play it safe (HA, ironic!) and lunge/free school him again instead of ride.
I often (but not always) combine lunging and free schooling, as cantering on the lunge is a step too far for him at the moment. Also he loves loose jumping (takes himself over any fences I put up without any guidance whatsoever - I normally spend longer than anything persuading him to stop
) so decided to pop up a little fence for him. We have done this scores of times and he has never once acted the wollox, he's always been so good, and he showed no signs, during our little session at the new place the other day, of being otherwise. I lunged him for a short time and he behaved perfectly, got all of our goals acheived and done well, then turned him loose to have a run around and he did so, popped the jump happy out a few times and then without any warning........ barged straight through the fence and p!$$ed off down the lane. The fence is - sorry was - a big fence. He managed to snap a vertical post at the bottom, and the horizontal rails snapped with it. I'm not quite sure as it was one of those 'happened a bit quickly' things but I think he half thought about jumping it and by the time he'd realised what he was doing he was committed and had no choice but to carry on through it.
He just trotted off up the lane to the gate to his field and stood looking at me. Luckily the bloody sod seems to be fine... retrieved him no problem (he even put his nose into the headcollar, think he may have a sense of guilt), walked him round the school (in hand) a few times afterwards, hosed his legs down and checked him out all over, no sign of lameness or even a tiny graze, so he'll prob just be a bit stiff for a couple of days. The wood didn't shatter, just broke without too many shards, and THANK GOD it seems he somehow avoided all of the nails.
Great impression to make on the new yard owner.
Apologised profusely to her, helped her to do a botch-job on the hole in the side of her beautiful arena, then asked her numerous times to make sure she puts every penny of the repairs onto my bill. She was lovely and understanding about it all, said she'd check him again later and told me to just come home and have a stiff drink. I feel absolutely awful, I honestly never thought he'd do anything like that Horrified at the damage he's done to her arena, what he might've done to himself and that he's done a really super job of making a complete arse out of me in a very short space of time at the new place I've turned from the angry and upset phases into the in-shock-thank-god-he/no-one-was-hurt phase and am now arriving at the worrying about him phase. May have to go and check him again tonight Stupid bloody ignorant knobber horse. He's lucky he hasn't got serious injuries, if not from the fence then from me afterwards
The joys of horses, sigh
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(just secretly pleased my welshie isn't his size..mwahaha)
) so told him off again, shouted 'stand' and gave him an elbow into the chest for being bargy. He turned into a complete martyr and refused to move an inch for 20 minutes. Myself and other liveries were outside his stable creased with laughter as he stood stock still in the exact place I told him off in, ignoring his hay and looking at us with a very pointed expression which nearly flashed in neon lights: "well you told me stand, I'm standing. I'm standing and I'm ignoring my hay and now I'm going to starve. Happy now?"