clairebearnz
Well-Known Member
Dear Fready is a bit of a problem child. The fact I seem to attract them should probably worry me! Since moving to Christchurch, he's been badly grass affected by spring grass. He loses his mind and turns into a sweating, spooking, rearing, mess of a horse. I actually fell off him in a dressage lesson (how mortifying) because he suddenly decided that R was a monster and teleported violently to the centreline before doing a spectacular Western style reverse back to C. He then refused to go anywhere near A and stood there bucking until my dressage instructor led him (even more mortifying). I took him out to a dressage competition and we uh...scratched from our second test after doing some quite spectacular moves in the warm up and scoring a lovely 55% with "distracted" comments.
So I took him off the grass and he's now contentedly hanging in a yard with adlib hay and Tally the creep next to him and he's content, and very importantly, sane.
How sane?
I took him to the beach and he had a racehorse, ponying another racehorse, gallop past him and he jumped then shrugged his shoulders and trotted on.
So I took him to some dressage. He did two Level 2 tests for 64% and a disappointing 61% (the nicer test!) and aside from the usual comments about lacking energy and purpose in the trot, got some lovely comments.
Lengthened trot is our bete noire at the moment. We both have to focus quite hard apparently.
His beautiful soft counter-canter
Apparently our lengthened canters were "bold"
He went out for a 2.5 hour hack around the forest and down the beach yesterday and was superb. Even when we came across people "power kiting" down the beach. Poor Fready had to gallop the length of the beach to stay in front of them. I'm not entirely sure he noticed the giant kites chasing him down the beach but I certainly did!
His reward when we got back
Everyone else is doing well. Tally is still recuperating from the abscess he developed post-Cushings related laminitis in the autumn.
He's very bored.
He did, however, get a trip to the beach with my friend's young horse (who I'm bringing on as he's just been broken in and she's awaiting surgery). He found seaweed. And ate it. It was dried up and chewy and took him about 10 minutes to eat it.
The little wild thing is also having a great time.
So everyone is happy!
So I took him off the grass and he's now contentedly hanging in a yard with adlib hay and Tally the creep next to him and he's content, and very importantly, sane.
How sane?
I took him to the beach and he had a racehorse, ponying another racehorse, gallop past him and he jumped then shrugged his shoulders and trotted on.
So I took him to some dressage. He did two Level 2 tests for 64% and a disappointing 61% (the nicer test!) and aside from the usual comments about lacking energy and purpose in the trot, got some lovely comments.
Lengthened trot is our bete noire at the moment. We both have to focus quite hard apparently.
His beautiful soft counter-canter
Apparently our lengthened canters were "bold"
He went out for a 2.5 hour hack around the forest and down the beach yesterday and was superb. Even when we came across people "power kiting" down the beach. Poor Fready had to gallop the length of the beach to stay in front of them. I'm not entirely sure he noticed the giant kites chasing him down the beach but I certainly did!
His reward when we got back
Everyone else is doing well. Tally is still recuperating from the abscess he developed post-Cushings related laminitis in the autumn.
He's very bored.
He did, however, get a trip to the beach with my friend's young horse (who I'm bringing on as he's just been broken in and she's awaiting surgery). He found seaweed. And ate it. It was dried up and chewy and took him about 10 minutes to eat it.
The little wild thing is also having a great time.
So everyone is happy!
