Rio - 5 weeks in the UK

StormyMoments

StormyMoments

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This is for those of you who are intrested in Rio's progress :)

Right, Rio has now been in the country for 5 weeks 3 days and exactly 5 weeks with me!

We have had our ups and downs and a few issues but they are all being sorted or we are working around them :)

Since having him i have only schooled him 4 times all in the first 2 weeks of having him so no new videos unfortunatly :( i have hacked him out 3 times and other than that he has done very little other than learn boundaries and just chill in the field and relax a bit.

Hacking is going well... he hacks out in company with Taz and walks along beside him with very little interest although some times he does show a bit too much interest. he will only go infront or next to other horses which tbh i think is safer anywaywith him being a stallion. Taz also gets very nervous with him behind so taz just follows along.

Hes frightened of mud and puddles but has never refused to go through them and he also jumped down a drop the other day as it was the only way down. he wasnt sure but with a bit of encouragement he did it :)

in the last week or so his biting got worse but with some advice from the wonderful people on here that is now coming under control :) so thank you!!

a few of the problems we have had is loosing weight (keeping weight on thread) and also freaking out while mounting... i havent said anything about this as i just thought it was because everything is very new and exciting but i can now see its out of fear... while mounting he practically sits on the floor, his eyes go wild and frightened he snorts and tries to take off. we had physio look at him and a lady who does reiki (shes a friend she was there thought what the hell) both of which have said there is nothing to suggest its a reaction to pain (he has a new dressage saddle fitted 2 weeks ago)

what i need you to understand is his reaction - his eyes go wild, his ears are listening to me, he crouches with his back end and trots fast on the spot and if i let him go into full blown panic he rears vertically and tries to take off. i can get him to calm down and stand quietly as i mount but its stopping the anticipation of me getting on. we have spent some time just getting him tacked up and just taking everything slowely and waiting for him to calm and then just leaning over him like you would with a youngster and hes been getting better to the point where now when we tack up and go to get on there is only a little bit of trotting on the spot and he is still watching me when i get on and listening but none of the freaking out that he used to do. so there is progress!

sorry for the essay! other than that he has been very good and once going he is fine except his explosive reaction to canter (which we arent doing at the moment) and the fact he doesnt like to stand still...

oh almost forgot - i found out that he was broken in at 2 years old before Vincente got him so god knows how he was broken in :( gonna give him the winter with not much work and just let him settle and relax a bit..

also got him to relax and do a nice working trot the other day not the silly high knees fast trot-but-not-much-movement trot that he usually does

but here are some photos :) i havent got any really recent ones but this is what i have :)

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i think he suits green :)

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looking like a donkey but nice new dressage saddle :)

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ridden a few weeks back in the spanish exercise saddle

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and just because hes beautiful :)

sorry i dont have any new ones :( i will try and get some more soon!
 
He's gorgeous! I haven't followed all the updates, am I right in thinking he's come from Spain?

Riding is quite a 'macho' sport in some parts of Spain and you do get some riders who think that part of being 'macho' is having a very tense, wound-up horse (my trainer there has had to re-train a fair few of them. He is at the more relaxed end of the spectrum yet my horse, who he trained, still had a more stilted trot than we would like to see here). As a black stallion, Rio would probably have been worth a pretty penny and possibly ended up with someone who wanted a very flashy horse. His nervousness to be mounted probably relates to that. They also tend towards very 'up' paces, some riders will think this equates to 'collected' and even 'passage' - again, the staccato trot is a sign (and sometimes an odd walk, where they almost look lame but it's because the rider has tried to 'collect' and the horse has ended up taking one normal step then one short step to interpret the rider's commands).

It sounds like you're doing all the right things. Spanish horses are natural worriers as they usually want to please the rider. By letting him know that all you want is for him to chill out, he'll gradually stop the tense anticipation. Then you can encourage him to stretch through his back and lengthen his strides. He seems to be trying hard already so keep going and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful partner :)
 
the man who sold him to us sold him for very little as he didnt want someone horrible to have him... he reduced his price right down to pennies and payed for his vettings, certificates tests the lot as he wanted us to have him... i think he was aware of him not having been broken in the most humane manner but they didnt change the way they rode him (still very tight and upwards not forwards) he was ridden in a pelham with a port just on the bottom ring with a curb chain which he really didnt like so we changed him into a french link snaffle which hes still not 100% in but we are trying to find something he will like!

yes he did come from spain (just below valencia) he was occationally used in parades so hes been taught all of the movements which unfortunatly means i some times end up pushing buttons at the wrong times! and yes he does do that weird lame looking walk when ridden at the start before he relaxes and walks out normally and he sometimes does it in the field aswell.

he is a bit of a worrier and spends his whole life trying to please everyone although as im his main handler he has begun to cling very much to me :o i do love him but hes very babyish even at 8 years old :o some times hes very moody... like if you do something out of routine he doesnt like it and he will be fine for about 10 mins and then he will completely switch and get wound up and dances around and starts to try and bite more and becomes a bit nasty really and it doesnt stop until hes back where he would be if he were in his routine eg the field so hes a bit of a plum in that sence :o

and i really hope so as hes such a lovely horse he just needs to realise i dont want him to perform or do anything other than relax :)
 
I think you are doing very well with him. Lots of hacking is what I would do over the winter and let him chill out. Sounds like you are making progress with the mounting issue as well.

Well done. But we need more pics please!!
 
hahahaha sorry about that!! hmmm i will look on my computer i might have a couple you havent seen :P dont get your hopes up though i have only ridden him twice with the camera present :)
 
hopefully we will start dressage next year although our first few outings may just be things like tack and turn out and things like that to get him used to being around other horses without feeling the need to make friends with all of them! but first we are looking for him to relax under saddle and less explosive... he knows all the movements for an advanced test but hes so tightly wound up and frightened and even a little excited that i wouldnt even bother to ask for any of them and hes never been asked to put them together into a test so i think it would look very jumbled anyway :o

and my mum is drawing that picture of him for his old owner as i thought it was nice too :)
 
He's pretty special, I wanted to say Friesian but as you said he's from Spain I thought I'd better ask before making a bum of myself :o

Looking forward to your updates, are black Andalucians quite unusual? have only ever seen greys and bays.
 
he is lovely :) and tbh if he had feathers he would look like a fresian easily :)

80% are grey, 15% are bay and only 5% of andalusians are either black, dun or palamino from what i have read so yeah they are unusual :) and then you get very unusual ones which are pearl, buckskin and cremello
 
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Do you mount from a block? The main reason I ask this is I have experience of a lot of horses imported from Portugal and they are rarely mounted from blocks only from the floor and with a fair few of them its taken a long time to be able to easily use a block as they are simply not used to a human standing higher than their head basically. Just a thought :) he's beautiful btw
 
StormyMoments said:
he is lovely :) and tbh if he had feathers he would look like a fresian easily :)

80% are grey, 15% are bay and only 5% of andalusians are either black, dun or palamino from what i have read so yeah they are unusual :) and then you get very unusual ones which are pearl, buckskin and cremello
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Wow! Are you planning to breed with him?
 
i have tried both neither of which he likes its before i even go to get on that he starts i only have to lead him out of the corral on to the yard and then he starts getting funny :/

and i would breed from him but i dont think he would pass the breeding standards as he dishes on the front slightly unfortunatly and i also dont have the facilities to have a breeding stallion as at the moment he doesnt really know what hes doing so it means i can walk past the mares and geldings on the yard without a problem. which i think would change if he was bred from unfortunatly :(
 
thank you! when he goes into full out show off stallion mode then he really does look stunning... doesnt happen very often anymore though as hes used to everything now :(
 
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