Ups and downs
Because the weather has been rubbish, my saddle is away being repaired, I've been away having lessons and we dedicated last weekend to sorting out our house I've not actually done much riding with Zorro for the last week or so. This evening I decided to rectify that, borrowing a saddle from sleepsy_mouse ( one of the joys of treeless is that saddle fit becomes a non-issue ) and do a little bit in the school.
We did our usual warm up on the ground, which went fine and then I got on, which didn't. If I put my leg on Zorro interpreted it to mean upwards rather than forwards. I got to enjoy some furious jumping up and down and some big rears. Every time the leg went on, the horse started to bunch up and if it stayed on he went upwards in some respect. It was pretty much a nightmare situation really - I wasn't on my usual very deep seated saddle and the one I was on was slipping slightly, the few steps of forward did get put us right next to the part of the school fence where the rail has come loose and I was pretty sure that getting dropped on that would result in a whole lot of nail holes, so I did the worst thing I could in the situation from a training point of view, but the best from a safety point of view and got off.
We then did some very high energy groundwork where I established the point that not only do I control whose feet go where but I do so at all speeds in all circumstances. I was starting to get him working really lightly and responding much more accurately to my asks when our session was curtailed somewhat by our friend needing to lunge her colicky mare so we called it a day.
I'm going to analyse this through the nose over the next few days, no doubt, but I'm reasonably confident that the cause is a mixture of spring grass providing energy and Zorro not really seeing why he should work after all this time off, especially at dinner time when he should be having his dinner. I'm confident there is no pain involved because we have had various specialists check him out over the last few weeks and he is fine, there is no response to having his back palpated and I would expect that to cause a problem the minute I got on rather than waiting until I asked him to move.
There are also a few other things that I'm wondering about- this is becoming a bit of a pattern for him since he had his back checked ( probably because I got off then on the grounds I thought he could be in pain - when we had the chiro back she suggested he probably felt different which may have triggered the behaviour but there was no pain present ) and that coincides with the time that my position began to be noticeably changed as a result of the classical riding lessons I've been having. Whether there is something that bothers him about the different leg position or the fact I'm probably riding a lot lighter I don't know but we have had some good riding in between the stropping fits since then so it's obviously not a serious problem for him.
My current thinking is that fundamentally he's being a tit and I'm going to need to ride it out.
Before that I'm going to need to:
When I do ride my current thinking is that I will ride off the halter so I don't pull on his mouth inadvertantly if he is being a tit and make matters worse (he's very used to working off a halter) and I will be very definite and quick to back up my leg when it goes on. I was thinking about this today how there was some part of my brain that was thinking "don't back that up too hard, you'll only make matters worse" and I need to get that part of my brain to shut up- he's already rearing, bucking and doing nothing else- how much worse is it going to get?*
Rather than the regular mounting block in the corner of the school I will use something small in the centre of the school or get on from the ground so that if I do go flying anywhere immediately I will at least have a level landing area.
That's where my thinking is right now anyways- I'm not actually that worried during these hectic moments because he isn't really trying to unseat me, but it is getting worse and it does need to stop. Also it is kind of depressing when you've been really looking forward to riding and you end up with a performance like that. I'm sure that you guys will have some very sound ideas to throw into the mix or relevant experiences** that might help.
* Honestly? Don't answer that.
** Ones that don't end in broken bones preferred if I'm going to go into this with a positive mindset.
We did our usual warm up on the ground, which went fine and then I got on, which didn't. If I put my leg on Zorro interpreted it to mean upwards rather than forwards. I got to enjoy some furious jumping up and down and some big rears. Every time the leg went on, the horse started to bunch up and if it stayed on he went upwards in some respect. It was pretty much a nightmare situation really - I wasn't on my usual very deep seated saddle and the one I was on was slipping slightly, the few steps of forward did get put us right next to the part of the school fence where the rail has come loose and I was pretty sure that getting dropped on that would result in a whole lot of nail holes, so I did the worst thing I could in the situation from a training point of view, but the best from a safety point of view and got off.
We then did some very high energy groundwork where I established the point that not only do I control whose feet go where but I do so at all speeds in all circumstances. I was starting to get him working really lightly and responding much more accurately to my asks when our session was curtailed somewhat by our friend needing to lunge her colicky mare so we called it a day.
I'm going to analyse this through the nose over the next few days, no doubt, but I'm reasonably confident that the cause is a mixture of spring grass providing energy and Zorro not really seeing why he should work after all this time off, especially at dinner time when he should be having his dinner. I'm confident there is no pain involved because we have had various specialists check him out over the last few weeks and he is fine, there is no response to having his back palpated and I would expect that to cause a problem the minute I got on rather than waiting until I asked him to move.
There are also a few other things that I'm wondering about- this is becoming a bit of a pattern for him since he had his back checked ( probably because I got off then on the grounds I thought he could be in pain - when we had the chiro back she suggested he probably felt different which may have triggered the behaviour but there was no pain present ) and that coincides with the time that my position began to be noticeably changed as a result of the classical riding lessons I've been having. Whether there is something that bothers him about the different leg position or the fact I'm probably riding a lot lighter I don't know but we have had some good riding in between the stropping fits since then so it's obviously not a serious problem for him.
My current thinking is that fundamentally he's being a tit and I'm going to need to ride it out.
Before that I'm going to need to:
- Get the school fence fixed - doing something a potentially unsafe in a dangerous environment is not smart.
- Get my saddle back, which needs fixing time plus time in the post so that's probably a week more at least.
- Do consistent groundwork, ideally every day, taking it to a high energy level and getting him responding accurately and without resistence to remind him that he has a job to do and jumping up and down with me on his back isn't it.
- As part of that do a bit of sacking out type work with the rope to make sure he is quite happy with things around his sides, just in case that is bothering him.
- Charge my camera battery.
When I do ride my current thinking is that I will ride off the halter so I don't pull on his mouth inadvertantly if he is being a tit and make matters worse (he's very used to working off a halter) and I will be very definite and quick to back up my leg when it goes on. I was thinking about this today how there was some part of my brain that was thinking "don't back that up too hard, you'll only make matters worse" and I need to get that part of my brain to shut up- he's already rearing, bucking and doing nothing else- how much worse is it going to get?*
Rather than the regular mounting block in the corner of the school I will use something small in the centre of the school or get on from the ground so that if I do go flying anywhere immediately I will at least have a level landing area.
That's where my thinking is right now anyways- I'm not actually that worried during these hectic moments because he isn't really trying to unseat me, but it is getting worse and it does need to stop. Also it is kind of depressing when you've been really looking forward to riding and you end up with a performance like that. I'm sure that you guys will have some very sound ideas to throw into the mix or relevant experiences** that might help.
* Honestly? Don't answer that.
** Ones that don't end in broken bones preferred if I'm going to go into this with a positive mindset.