Ilovefoals
Well-Known Member
How do you cope with what they throw at you?
My youngster was a real sod today. I was taken a bit by surprise as he's actually been pretty good up til now with only a few green or baby moments. Not really naughtiness.
I had a lesson this morning and as soon as I got on I could tell he felt different from his usual calm self. A bit snorty, tense etc. I even said to my trainer "hmmm, he feels like he might be norty today". Trot was a zillion miles an hour which is NOT like him. Trainer had me circle around her on a 20m circle, then circle in to 15m then leg yield back out to 20m again. This worked well while trainer was in the middle of the circle. She then moved further up the school so we were circling in front of her. For some reason, whether it was naughtiness or confusion, he couldn't get his head around circling in front of her and kept napping sideways up the school til he could get round behind her again. Did the same both reins with me being particularly feeble til we took it back to walk and built back up to trot from there. All the while he's also spooking, diving in onto my inside leg, diving out onto his outside shoulder, head in the air, ears up my nostrils etc etc.
Eventually he settled and began to relax and then the flippin shetland came careering down the field which was right next to us and set him off again. This led to him bogging off full pelt down the school, me with my hands up to my ears as had been on a long rein and shaking like a leaf!
In the end, we got some nice relaxed trot, we got some sensible circles and even a few lengthened strides but my confidence had taken a bit of a knock. In hindsight, I should have gotten off and lunged when I first thought he might misbehave and my trainer said afterwards that I should never be scared to tell her that I think I should lunge first.
So how do you guys whose horses act like numpties cope? What routines, mechanisms do you use to difuse silly behaviour or would you just get off and lunge?
I have to add, although he was acting the fool, he never actually tried to get me off, which he had plenty of opportunity to do. So I'm putting it down to a mixture of high spirits and confusion. The good thing is that he had the most fabulous trot at the end and I could see glimpses of where we could get to in the future
And I thought all Irish Draughts were plods 
My youngster was a real sod today. I was taken a bit by surprise as he's actually been pretty good up til now with only a few green or baby moments. Not really naughtiness.
I had a lesson this morning and as soon as I got on I could tell he felt different from his usual calm self. A bit snorty, tense etc. I even said to my trainer "hmmm, he feels like he might be norty today". Trot was a zillion miles an hour which is NOT like him. Trainer had me circle around her on a 20m circle, then circle in to 15m then leg yield back out to 20m again. This worked well while trainer was in the middle of the circle. She then moved further up the school so we were circling in front of her. For some reason, whether it was naughtiness or confusion, he couldn't get his head around circling in front of her and kept napping sideways up the school til he could get round behind her again. Did the same both reins with me being particularly feeble til we took it back to walk and built back up to trot from there. All the while he's also spooking, diving in onto my inside leg, diving out onto his outside shoulder, head in the air, ears up my nostrils etc etc.
Eventually he settled and began to relax and then the flippin shetland came careering down the field which was right next to us and set him off again. This led to him bogging off full pelt down the school, me with my hands up to my ears as had been on a long rein and shaking like a leaf!
In the end, we got some nice relaxed trot, we got some sensible circles and even a few lengthened strides but my confidence had taken a bit of a knock. In hindsight, I should have gotten off and lunged when I first thought he might misbehave and my trainer said afterwards that I should never be scared to tell her that I think I should lunge first.
So how do you guys whose horses act like numpties cope? What routines, mechanisms do you use to difuse silly behaviour or would you just get off and lunge?
I have to add, although he was acting the fool, he never actually tried to get me off, which he had plenty of opportunity to do. So I'm putting it down to a mixture of high spirits and confusion. The good thing is that he had the most fabulous trot at the end and I could see glimpses of where we could get to in the future
And I thought all Irish Draughts were plods 
