The 'kevin' years. Share experiences please!

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Bigbenji

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I currently have two Welsh D's, ones just turned 6 the other just turned 5. Sucker for punishment I know :/

They are both 99% of the time amazing to ride, forward, keen and love their work, but the 1% kevin comes out and you never really know when it's going to happen.

Examples of kevin tantrums have been caused by the following: blue flowers, a rouge plastic bag in the bushes, sun shining on a stone in the road, two birds having a fight near the roadside and not allowing them to go the route they want to go on a hack. These little things have induced full on temper tantrums, rearing, spinning, bucking and the best of all, the fast reverse manoeuvre.

Never let them get away with anything and normally a bit of shoulder in or half pass can coax them pass the offending items but they have to be a tit first.

Now it's not a moan or me asking for advice but would like to hear anyother funny Kevin tantrum stories to make me fell better about my two please :)
 
Not really a Kevin moment but I once fell off a horse because she saw a thistle, she stopped - I didn't!
I did have a Kevin experience with a very bold mare who had a melt down as somebody put their guinea pigs in a run on their front lawn, she thought they were the scariest, most dangerous, savage creatures ever!
 
There are two many to mention! Although one I can think of was my 7 yo Arab x who was not happy about being ridden in what has now been dubbed 'the field of doom', didn't want to jump, didn't want to go forward. Made him go down the hill towards the jumps and he decided that he wasn't having it bucked, dropped his shoulder and twisted, flipped me off and then appeared over the hill with me marking behind him rather enraged 😉 total cost of the day was air canister £28, jods £20, reins £15, one new shoe (he pulled it off) £15 and not a fence jumped!!
 
I am with you on this one.......mine is 6........a traditional gypsy cob, 98% of the time a real star , lovely to handle, will do all you ask and is foot prefect to ride and then................................

First he decided the village sign he has walked past for his whole life was a monster full 180o spin at speed, then the chickens he had walked past for months were killers! lots of snorting and diving all over the road. Next on to full rubbish bins, not empty ones, they are fine, lately its tractors, never a bother before but now he has just reversed at speed in to one. To him its all a big game , he is a really bold little horse and would defend his rider with his life. I am looking forward to year eight.....if I survive!!!
 
Bigbenji said:
These little things have induced full on temper tantrums, rearing, spinning, bucking and the best of all, the fast reverse manoeuvre.
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Ohhhh, the fast reverse manoeuvre. My section D throws that one every time she has an attack of the kevins. She can reverse at some speed - and distance, it's quite disconcerting!
Sorry, the funny stories are all suppressed by my brain, because we seem to have a certain amount of kevining every time we go out, so if I remembered it all then I'd never get on her again!! :lol:

ETA. I've found a teeny tiny woof tooth, so I'm deluding myself that it will all be OK after that comes out on Thursday ;)
 
I bought mine as a 5yo, he was a few weeks away from his official 6th birthday. Connie X who had just come over from Ireland having spent the season hunting. Fit as a fiddle and didn't see why he should be expected to start learning to school on the flat. I had temper tantrums for ages when doing flatwork, had to pay my instructor to school him for a few weeks in the end. No particularly funny stories, he was just a horrible teenager for quite a long time! Fine to jump, hack and hunt but absolutely did not see why he should have to learn dressage. He was completely upside down when I got him so he was not only learning new things but was having to be educated to go in a different way to anything he'd ever been used to. Combine that with teenage temper and being quite strong already... cue some serious explosions of temper!

Thankfully he matured into a really delightful horse :D
 
Two (of many) incidents spring to mind when mine was in his Kevin mode - pony club were doing pony games in the field near the lane; he wanted to join in, REALLY wanted to join in. I however had planned to go for a hack, we had a BIG argument; he was rearing (not dangerous rears but frightening enough), broncking, bunnyhopping etc, I managed to stay on and get him down the lane but I confess I got off and led him back another way, left me shaken but the fact I had managed to stay on during the worst of it oddly gave me a confidence that I could cope with his antics (just not again that day!) The other time we were doing a trec competition - we had practised everything over and over and had most of the obstacles down to an art, the day of the comp (which was at home) he was absolutely WIRED; I was terrified; he almost bombed off with me during our 'slow canter' in the control of paces, we demolished just about every obstacle, he nearly fell in the lake when he spooked at one of the obstacle judges. Again I stayed on but then nearly fell on the floor when I dismounted at the end because my legs were so shakey!
 
I'm feeling better already so keep them coming! It's like group therapy :)

The fast reverse combined with a super quick spin fly buck combo is most definitely helping ones seat ;)
 
Yes it is like therapy - I was feeling a bit down after a very rubbish schooling session, during which I actually told my horse he makes me feel like a ***** rider and does not deserve the Micklem bridle I just bought him at great expense (!), however all this reminicising has me thinking - my security in the saddle has def improved if nothing else!
 
Mine decided a few months after he turned 5 that he absolutely would not school or jump. We thought there must be something wrong with him, but after all the checks were done (and several new saddles!) I had to conclude he was just being stubborn and, like a 2 year old child, his favourite new word was 'NO!'
He was still happy to hack out though (and jump logs!)
After a summer of quiet hacking, we tried him in the school over some small jumps and he was happy to work again, and has been since!
 
Oh yes! Currently going through out Kevin period now. 98% great but rest of time throws in a buck when told off, won't listen when excited with others, throws a strop on every now and then when he doesn't want to do something, mini rear today because he didn't want to leave the canter track because he was having such a great time and so on :/
 
Mine hit the kevins half way between 6 and 7 (he's a bit mentally slow! :P ). I'd left for uni and my poor mother had just been abandoned with what had been a lovely quiet 'I-really-want-to-please-you-because-you're-my-best-friend' baby TB for the past year, and I returned home to find a shaggy beast of a TB who had grown too big for his boots and was throwing continual tantrums!

Thankfully he seems to have grown out of continual tantrum mode, but still occasionally likes to take one of his favourite hobbies from that day back up - trampolining...
 
My pony is now retired but would generally throw a total strop in company if he was not allowed to go at the pace of his own choosing - usually flat out. In the early days he dumped me and my son fairly regularly - I could sit the first two bucks but not the third. Eventually the bucking stopped and I learned to laugh at him. He was also quite opinionated about direction but always gave in after a short 'discussion'. He lives out all the time but will charge at the field gate if he wants through into the yard. The bad news is that he is a Welsh D and still has 'kevin' moments at the age of 25+. Some of them never really grow up.
 
No Kevin but Drama Queen, daughter's 16.33 WB is a funny thing, leading in from the field she spotted a sofa on end on the left outside the big house, this was the scariest thing necessitating growing 3 hands and a full on freeze (till her mate walked past it).

Following morning sofa was still there, but someone was unloading a van to our left outside the business units, which of course was slightly scary (worthy of a few snorts and side stepping). This meant we actually went sidewards with bum towards the sofa (now on our right) and safely past it. However at the last minute she suddenly remembered the sofa and did an enormous spook - at nothing as it was completely 10ft behind us! She looked totally baffled as there wasn't anything on her right to have spooked at, but she certainly got told off (and a 16.3 really shouldn't try to hide behind me, it doesn't work she can still be seen!)
 
Full on Kevin from my 7 yr old TB mare this morning, about some cows on the other side of the hedge. They were minding their own business but she evidently thought they were a herd of bloodthirsty TB-eating monsters. Cue growing to 25hh, rear, spin, bronc, spin, reverse with head between knees, rear, spin, leap, rear, leap, spin, reverse, stop, tremble from head to foot while looking at cows now ambling off up the field away from us (thank god her antics didn't induce a cow stampede, I'd have been off for sure). She finally went past, squashed right into the hedge on the far side of the path, snorting like a dragon and trembling all over.... Sudden onset cow phobia, lol!
 
Ive had plenty of these moments with my then 6, now 7 yr old warmblood!! Best one was when he was 6, normal schooling sess in the arena started off really well, began some leg yield with him down the 3/4 line to the fence left and right, down the centre line to the 3/4 line left and right, back to 3/4 line to the fence left was fine but all of a sudden nope could not leg yield to the right at all!! We had running off above the bit, reversing, standing and refusing to move, bucking and squealing!! He can throw some shapes if he gets stroppy over something!! Was very fustrating at the time but now i just laugh at him!!
 
8 year old (9 in 13 days, god help us all) Welsh D mare.. we saw a bin lorry out hacking it passed and then she did the very nice reverse at speed straight into a ditch.. must admit, never did it again! :D

She is 40 % behaved 50 % does what she wants 10 % will maybe cooperate.. everything very much has to be on her own terms. If I kept a diary on her antics of every day we'd have a saga.
 
My 5 yo welsh is starting his kevin stage I think! I feel a bit big on him so I have a young girl sharing him but recently he's been a bit silly out hacking with her, some spins and little rears and leaping when asked to walk through tiny puddles....so today he had the pleasure of me taking him out! He was foot perfect...until the dreaded puddles. We had rearing, leaping sideways, launching over them, and reversing. So I got off and splashed around in the muddy puddle until he realised that if I had survived the terrifying watery pit of death then maybe he could too!

He wasn't silly at all though apart from the puddles, tbh I think when we ride out together it's my 19yr old horse who whispers in his ear telling him how to be naughty! :D
 
Celtic- I was being reassured by other humiliating Kevin stories and hoping it wasn't just a Welsh D thing :/ the eldest is really compact and has a killer buck but doesn't seem to want to get me off, just seems to be checking I'm paying attention ;)

It's just the tantrums over those silly things isn't it? We had cartoon eyeballs popping out his head at, wait for it, his shadow this morning. Genuinely scary things and not an eyelid is batted.

Have to laugh though don't we?
 
Bigbenji said:
It's just the tantrums over those silly things isn't it? We had cartoon eyeballs popping out his head at, wait for it, his shadow this morning. Genuinely scary things and not an eyelid is batted.
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Just have to add - this is so true...mine is fine in traffic, fine with the quad bike driving around his field topping up water ect, but quad bike parked in the field next door = bucking on the spot squealing??
 
Bigbenji said:
Celtic- I was being reassured by other humiliating Kevin stories and hoping it wasn't just a Welsh D thing :/ the eldest is really compact and has a killer buck but doesn't seem to want to get me off, just seems to be checking I'm paying attention ;)

It's just the tantrums over those silly things isn't it? We had cartoon eyeballs popping out his head at, wait for it, his shadow this morning. Genuinely scary things and not an eyelid is batted.

Have to laugh though don't we?
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The 'suprised cob' look still makes me laugh. To be fair mine carried me very safely for many thousands of miles over the years - and only unsafely for a few! I love cob 'logic' - he is still the most intelligent horse I've ever known. Most things are assessed for one of three options - ignore it (cars, buses, tractors, most people, dogs, agility obstacles), tell it off (cattle, sheep, other horses, vets) or run away (carriages, pheasants, unexpected objects in the hedge). You have many, many years of fun ahead!
 
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