Sophstar
Well-Known Member
My field share has kindly offered me the use of his horses after I lost my cob a month ago so I didn't feel rushed into buying just so I could ride. I chose one of them so he could focus his time on enjoying his second. I have hacked out on him numerous times in the company of my field share on his other horse and all has been fine and I have taken him out on his own a couple of times, and despite being a little nervy and a lot of calling for the first half, he has settled and we walked round the block and home.
Today was a very different story. Same old first half of a little on edge and calling for his friend and he started to settle. Our hacking is all on country roads, but still reasonably busy at times. Got to the crossroads and went right to start our loop round the block and he walked on a bit and then decided to stop. This horse has a nack of deciding to turn round swiftly and I'm now used to it and can gauge when he may do it and resolve it before it starts. It started with just the spinning and everytime I tried to bring his head back round, he then introduced a bunny hop and snatching the reins whilst spinning. Thought it may have been the route we were taking and decided to head back to the crossroads and go round the other way. He accepted this and then within a couple of seconds of him realising he wasn't going home, he started playing up again. This time, the spinning came hand in hand with rearing and luckily he's barefoot so he wasn't slipping. I managed to get him to stop to let cars pass before he promptly tried to go up again. He would snatch his head one way or the other and before you could straighten him he would have his front feet bouncing off the road. I battled for a few more minutes before realising I really was going to end up on the road if I tried anything else and with his sheer ignorance of cars trying to crawl pass, he was being a stubborn git. Getting off was not an option in my mind as I knew he would drag me home or I'd have his front feet above me. I gave up and headed home but made him do lots of walk/halt which almost prompted further argument. Rather than letting him think home meant back to best friend in field I took him in the school for 10 minutes and made him do lots of trotting till he was almost knackered.
I feel annoyed at myself for not getting him round the block (which we have done before!) and letting him win that argument but I knew I wasn't going to win. I know I'll have to try again another day but it's just a reminder of how much I miss my horse who would have hacked on his lonesome for hours and not attempted ever to ditch me on the road or a car!
Sooo what would you have done?
Today was a very different story. Same old first half of a little on edge and calling for his friend and he started to settle. Our hacking is all on country roads, but still reasonably busy at times. Got to the crossroads and went right to start our loop round the block and he walked on a bit and then decided to stop. This horse has a nack of deciding to turn round swiftly and I'm now used to it and can gauge when he may do it and resolve it before it starts. It started with just the spinning and everytime I tried to bring his head back round, he then introduced a bunny hop and snatching the reins whilst spinning. Thought it may have been the route we were taking and decided to head back to the crossroads and go round the other way. He accepted this and then within a couple of seconds of him realising he wasn't going home, he started playing up again. This time, the spinning came hand in hand with rearing and luckily he's barefoot so he wasn't slipping. I managed to get him to stop to let cars pass before he promptly tried to go up again. He would snatch his head one way or the other and before you could straighten him he would have his front feet bouncing off the road. I battled for a few more minutes before realising I really was going to end up on the road if I tried anything else and with his sheer ignorance of cars trying to crawl pass, he was being a stubborn git. Getting off was not an option in my mind as I knew he would drag me home or I'd have his front feet above me. I gave up and headed home but made him do lots of walk/halt which almost prompted further argument. Rather than letting him think home meant back to best friend in field I took him in the school for 10 minutes and made him do lots of trotting till he was almost knackered.
I feel annoyed at myself for not getting him round the block (which we have done before!) and letting him win that argument but I knew I wasn't going to win. I know I'll have to try again another day but it's just a reminder of how much I miss my horse who would have hacked on his lonesome for hours and not attempted ever to ditch me on the road or a car!
Sooo what would you have done?
