In which ponies are clever and boys are dense
This evening Zorro and I went for another evening wander through the steep valley by the boys' field and this time I didn't get off to make it easier for him to get up the rocky staircase of the other side. The trail is a Byway, which means it's one of the only tracks in the area you can take a motor vehicle down and most weekends it gets packed with 4x4s and cross bikes and gets totally trashed as a result, rutted and then where it has got down to the underlying rock turning into big sandstone steps. Anyways, Zorro stomped up there without a qualm, nimble as a mountain horse. We went around the field where we got pestered by the other horses a few nights ago and they weren't interested in us so we progressed into the chestnut woods on the trail up onto the nature reserve.
I was getting a tiny bit nervous about this point and I could feel Zorro's energy was up so I chattered away explaining that I will never put him into danger, but I was just a little anxious about how he would react if we met any of the highland cows that graze the valley but that I was confident he would be fine. We got up the trail pretty well but when it came to taking the track that would take us back down into the valley so we could go round it our feet got really stuck and I couldn't move him forward. Figuring there were probably cattle ahead and he was probably anxious or just napping for home, I got off and lead. After a few steps he seemed to accept that and stomped on in the very fast walk he had adopted.
We saw no cows and at the bottom of the valley I asked if I could get back on but he wasn't going to stand still for that. We had that conversation in the stream, by the stream, on the path coming up and then several times on the path back up the other side of the valley, where he just wanted to stomp off ahead and didn't want to wait or pay attention to me. We were back on a path he knows so I thought he must be anxious to get home. After a while we settled to a point where he would stop and go forward with me and I felt our feet were a bit connected and we walked on. About a hundred yards further I spotted a group of about eight or nine cows, right across the path. On the ground I wasn't that worried about them but I figured Zorro would probably have a plot loss. The first cow, a black one with impressive horns, was stood in the middle of the path looking at us. Zorro stopped about five metres away and stood tall for a moment staring at it. Then he walked a little closer. Then he dropped his head and ran at the cow, chasing it into the bushes. Two more cows were on the path just beyond the corner and Zorro chased them off as well and looked keen to follow them off the trail into the woods.
I was absolutely gobsmacked. Twenty yards beyond the cows we stopped for a moment and he quietly and calmly waited while I got on, then offered to go back down the hill and chase the cows some more.
The last mile or so home, in almost total dark by this point, was calm but very forward. I pretty much let him do the driving as he could see a lot more than me in that light.
At this point I'm going to sound pretty crazy, but I think he wanted to show me that I didn't need to worry about his reaction to cattle. I think that is why he was trying to drag me off and - given that we didn't meet any on the trail down - probably why he got stuck at the top of the trail down the valley; he would have liked to continue up along the ridge and show off his cow-chasing skills there. He didn't think I trusted him enough as a rider so he wasn't going to let me get back on until he had proved to me he could do it.
Lesson learned. He's figured I'm becoming a more serious rider and he now wants me to take him more seriously as a riding horse. I think I can do that. Also, he would actually make a pretty good cow horse.
Best. Cob. Ever.
I was getting a tiny bit nervous about this point and I could feel Zorro's energy was up so I chattered away explaining that I will never put him into danger, but I was just a little anxious about how he would react if we met any of the highland cows that graze the valley but that I was confident he would be fine. We got up the trail pretty well but when it came to taking the track that would take us back down into the valley so we could go round it our feet got really stuck and I couldn't move him forward. Figuring there were probably cattle ahead and he was probably anxious or just napping for home, I got off and lead. After a few steps he seemed to accept that and stomped on in the very fast walk he had adopted.
We saw no cows and at the bottom of the valley I asked if I could get back on but he wasn't going to stand still for that. We had that conversation in the stream, by the stream, on the path coming up and then several times on the path back up the other side of the valley, where he just wanted to stomp off ahead and didn't want to wait or pay attention to me. We were back on a path he knows so I thought he must be anxious to get home. After a while we settled to a point where he would stop and go forward with me and I felt our feet were a bit connected and we walked on. About a hundred yards further I spotted a group of about eight or nine cows, right across the path. On the ground I wasn't that worried about them but I figured Zorro would probably have a plot loss. The first cow, a black one with impressive horns, was stood in the middle of the path looking at us. Zorro stopped about five metres away and stood tall for a moment staring at it. Then he walked a little closer. Then he dropped his head and ran at the cow, chasing it into the bushes. Two more cows were on the path just beyond the corner and Zorro chased them off as well and looked keen to follow them off the trail into the woods.
I was absolutely gobsmacked. Twenty yards beyond the cows we stopped for a moment and he quietly and calmly waited while I got on, then offered to go back down the hill and chase the cows some more.
The last mile or so home, in almost total dark by this point, was calm but very forward. I pretty much let him do the driving as he could see a lot more than me in that light.
At this point I'm going to sound pretty crazy, but I think he wanted to show me that I didn't need to worry about his reaction to cattle. I think that is why he was trying to drag me off and - given that we didn't meet any on the trail down - probably why he got stuck at the top of the trail down the valley; he would have liked to continue up along the ridge and show off his cow-chasing skills there. He didn't think I trusted him enough as a rider so he wasn't going to let me get back on until he had proved to me he could do it.
Lesson learned. He's figured I'm becoming a more serious rider and he now wants me to take him more seriously as a riding horse. I think I can do that. Also, he would actually make a pretty good cow horse.
Best. Cob. Ever.