melbournesunrise
Well-Known Member
So I've had my new horse for a month now. It's going pretty well, since he hasn't had a change of home, just a change of owner. I bought him from someone that kept him at the stables I've been riding at for a couple of years, so lots of people there have known him for years and years. They all say he is looking a lot better and happier in his new saddle and bridle 
Anyway, we went on our first fast-paced hack last weekend. It was about 90 minutes long, and included some decent canter stretches. It's a ride he's done many times with other people, but I've never done that route before, so we stayed in the middle of the ride, behind a relatively fast-walking mare and in front of a slower mare.
We were only a part of the way through the ride, having done a couple of canters but still with plenty more in front of us, when I noticed that, every canter we did, he snatched at the bit as he set off. He never does it in the school through any transition, and wasn't doing it between other transitions out on the hack.
Instinctively, I'd say he was just excited, because it is so unlike any of the behaviour he exhibits the rest of the time. Similarly, the rest of the time he is ridden, his behaviour hasn't indicated any sort of pain. Do you think this is an excitement thing? A reaction to the fact that he wants to canter, and he wants to canter NOW! He was like a different horse on that hack, according to the pair of people I rode with, who have hacked with him hundreds of times...
Or do you think I would be better to have the usual things checked ASAP? They are on my list of things that will be getting done, but in terms of my work schedule, I was planning on waiting to do them until late July/August (school holidays)...
Thanks in advance
Anyway, we went on our first fast-paced hack last weekend. It was about 90 minutes long, and included some decent canter stretches. It's a ride he's done many times with other people, but I've never done that route before, so we stayed in the middle of the ride, behind a relatively fast-walking mare and in front of a slower mare.
We were only a part of the way through the ride, having done a couple of canters but still with plenty more in front of us, when I noticed that, every canter we did, he snatched at the bit as he set off. He never does it in the school through any transition, and wasn't doing it between other transitions out on the hack.
Instinctively, I'd say he was just excited, because it is so unlike any of the behaviour he exhibits the rest of the time. Similarly, the rest of the time he is ridden, his behaviour hasn't indicated any sort of pain. Do you think this is an excitement thing? A reaction to the fact that he wants to canter, and he wants to canter NOW! He was like a different horse on that hack, according to the pair of people I rode with, who have hacked with him hundreds of times...
Or do you think I would be better to have the usual things checked ASAP? They are on my list of things that will be getting done, but in terms of my work schedule, I was planning on waiting to do them until late July/August (school holidays)...
Thanks in advance