What happened??

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reindeerlover

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Sorry this may turn into a rant... I have a 5yo ex racer, she is just back in work now, schooling and hacking out. I hacked her out with friend the last couple of days with her older, reasonably sensible horses as I'm not sure if she's ever hacked alone. I intent to play polocrosse on her and need to build up a rapport with her before I even try her with a raquet.

She has been pretty good up until now, went on a 12 mile sponsored ride a couple of weeks ago, jumping and cantering etc and she was a dream.

Yesterday we hacked for maybe an hour- hour and a half, cantering on the grass tracks with the other horses, went first or last didn't throw any wobbly/hissy fits, trotted a bit, walked a lot. Then, just turning off the grass bridle path on a loose rein onto the road that leads to the busy main road (500 meters?) something invisible bit her bum! She humped with her back legs right underneath her, head on the floor (as stupid reins were loose!), I got her head up but lost a stirrup in the first onslaught so seat was a lttle unsteady, managed to stop her and she started to calm and then exploded once again! She had kind of steered herself into a stubble field at this point and I'm rather ashamed to say that I kind of bailed out/fell. She cantered up the field to the top (well fenced in!) and my friend went up and collected her. Anyway, I led her home as I didn't want to remount that close to the road in case anything else went wrong.

Feel a bit gutted as I was starting to feel really good about her and that we were developing a partnership. I really don't like that kind of behaviour on the road, scary stuff and if we hadn't been in the field and I had fallen, she'd have been straight on that road! Doesn't bear thinking about. I guess in hindsight I shouldn't have been holding the reins at the buckle but I wanted to let her stretch and relax. Stupid really, I don't know if anyone has any ideas/suggestions but pies all round if you got this far without thinking what a moany wench I am. Jelly beans if you thought that but still got this far! :(
 
If this behaviour is very uncharacteristic for her, maybe something did bite her. There are a lot of wasps around here at the moment.

If I were you I would consider this a one off and completely forget about it.

If you don't really know what is 'normal' for her, stay cautious, e.g. ride her always on a short rein, maybe add a neck-strap, avoid busy roads, maybe try spurs to urge her on etc. and see what happens. If it turns into a regular occurrence see how you feel about it then.
 
i'm afraid it just sounds like one of those things and i wouldn't dwell on it unless it becomes more frequent.

she may have been stung by something, caught something scary out of the corner of her eye, had a high jinks moment because she is young and a tb, she may even have had a little spook and then been unsettled/ worried by you being off balance- i think if it has only happened once then i wouldn't disect it too much.


fwiw, i never hack on the buckle- if you want her to stretch out keep the contact but put your hands a bit further forward. you can have a long rein with the horse's head on the floor but still a contact, i never ride with a loose rein hacking.
 
Put this one down to a one off, something could have spooked her that you didn't see, bit her etc.

I do hack on a long rein on my current hairies - they just don't spook or react,(so far) but on my WB, I used to give a slightly longer rein and put my hands forward. I would occasionally stop and let her stretch her head right down for a minute, maybe even let her have a bite of grass so she could stretch and relax, then gather her up and walk on - she was not the sort you could totally trust not to leap through the air for no apparent reason, but the stopping and stretch after 20 - 30 minutes did help her relax and stay nice. Luckily she was the sort never to bomb off, she could be nappy and if I took off all contact on the reins as she went to leap forward she would stop dead without contact.
 
Agree with the above. Yesterday I saw huge bumblebees, wasps and a flipping hornet in my bathroom. Flying insects of all types where about. It does sound like a reaction to an insect biting her on the bot!:eek:
 
Aw thanks everyone, I agree I don't know her well enough (ridden) to really say whether it's normal for her or not, she's had little fits like that before but I normally stay on and I usually know what has caused it!

She is a tb though and we all know that their brains sometimes malfunction for no apparent reason ;) so I'll put it down to that and not ride her on the buckle again for a while. I should have gathered them up before we went near the road anyway, tool :o
 
agree theres so many insect thingies about, i posted about mine doing something out of character the other weekend, glad its not just me who thinks ok enough and bails out lol

he keeps snorting as well i think pollen/midges etc is upsetting him
 
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