Do you make excuses for your horses behaviour?

Not excuses, but I seek to find the reason.

Escaping through the shoulder? Sloppy outside contact.
Run out at a skinny? Ride him properly into it.

Wont let me get on? Bilateral lameness in front.

There's a difference between cheekiness and naughtiness though, usually find naughtiness can be traced back to riding or handling error.
 
On the few occasions that he does something daft like buck going into canter, trot beautifully round the arena then throw a fit screaming and bouncing for a minute then carry on as if it never happened I laugh. So yes I make the excuse that he's just being Rio :) but he never behaves badly like being determined to get me off, kicking, bronking or anything like that, its just too much energy/ him being excited so he is worked pretty hard to keep it at a minimum ;)
 
i dont make excuses as i know that it is most likely me who has caused the issue e.g. asking for halt the other day on Rio... what would usually be how you would ask for halt is how he is asked to rear and he caught me off guard and i grabbed his mane as he went vertical and that unbalanced him so he spun in the air so he didnt come over on me and i baled out of the side door :o i landed fairly heavily on to my side and scared the life out of the poor beast :( but that was my fault not his...most "bad" behaviour is likely to be a misunderstanding then true nastyness imo
 
The best excuses are those my daughter makes up for her pony, who admittedly is just cheeky & amusingly naughty now (rather than a horror with good reason as she was). Just normal young mare stuff. We've had 'she isn't naughty, she just forgot to be good', 'she only stole your drink because, erm, erm, her water has got hay in & she's thirsty', 'no, she isn't being silly prancing, I asked her to', 'no, she didn't untie herself & throw the grooming kit round the yard, that was erm, erm, the wind', 'she isn't trying to race off, she's just stretching her legs'. Blaming stuff on flies is popular too.
 
I would tell it as it was really, if she was being a moo I would say so. I have friends that say perhaps this was wrong or this was the cause instead of just saying they were behaving like a T t.
 
Like Gleeful Imp, I look for the reason. There is always a reason... with the horses I have just now, it is never naughtiness.
Sometimes, bad behaviour is lack of paying attention or planning on the riders part.
 
CC - Give me my pony back !!!!

Boyo is a perfect gent on the ground, whilst out on a hack I have to be one step ahead ... To start with whilst he was settling in I'd make excuses for him - not now though (its been a year) if he's being a p**t.
 
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