Show Practice?

I had a lesson on Sunday and due to the chilly windy conditions outside we found ourselves with quite a few visitors in the indoor.  It was just after our lesson so we were done, but he was a little sweaty so I planned on cooling him off inside before taking him out into the wind and cold.  As I watched him perk up and eye every horse that came in, I thought this is perfect we will see how he behaves around new horses. 

All in all 4 other horses joined us inside.  One he had seen before, a pretty chestnut, with a nervous rider.  We had made her nervous a few weeks back while we practiced a test.  Dexter's animated canter was making a little too much noise for her horse to handle.  Needless to say she was more nervous with all the horses coming into the arena. 

We sat and talked with Trainer for a while and Dexter politely watched the other horses as they walked by.  Every now and then he would try to drift away to get a closer look but he wasn't over zealous about it.  Everyone just walked around, I had hoped someone would get the courage to trot or canter so I could gauge how Dex would do with someone coming up on him, but no such luck.

We just walked lazily around, then it happened.  OH MY GOD!!!  There is a jacket on the bench!!  There wasn't a jacket there before, it must be an evil predatory jacket that can appear out of thin air!  Must spin and try to run away!!  Wait! Now I can't see the jacket, it could be trying to attack me right now!  Must spin around keep an eye on it!  Oh no, too scary to look at, now I can't see it ... OH WHAT  TO DO!?!

That was obviously Dexter's internal monologue.  Mine was more like "What the hell!  Where are you going?  What are you looking at?  The jacket?!?  Seriously?!"

So he settled on standing, well jigging, perpendicular to the jacket so he could make a snap decision as to whether or not he needed to run at any point.  I found it amusing and tried to get him to calmly walk towards the coat but couldn't get him to budge.  We were about 20 feet from it at this point.  I think I could have gotten him closer but could see the nervous rider watching me, her horse could care less at this point. I thought about all the possibilities and with all the people in the arena decided it would be best to introduce Dexter to the jacket by getting off and leading him over.

If it had just been us,  I would have pushed my luck a little more, but I didn't want my idiot horse spooking another horse and getting someone else hurt.  And I could tell the nervous rider was seriously doubting my ability to control my horse, and to be fair, I wouldn't disagree with her.  So I got off, walked him over.  He made a big deal out of it until we got about 5 feet away, then he was over it.  Ohhhh... its just a regular, non-moving, non-horse eating jacket.  I even flapped the sleeves around a bit.... nothing.

I got back on (because Dexter is too smart and has already learned that he can scare me out of making him work) and walked around some more.  The jacket was no longer a threat. 

So I think this was a good test for this weekend.  I now know he should be relatively ok in the warm-up ring with other horses.  But I will however have to be on the look out for rouge jackets.  I wonder if the judge would mind if I asked her not to change clothes, move anything or move at all for that matter.  :)

Dexter on Drugs

or as other's know it...Alfalfa.  When I first purchased Dexter he was on grass hay, the new place I was going to board at primarily fed alfalfa.  We fed alfalfa a lot in FL and since I didn't want him to have to be kept by himself, we decided to wean him off the grass and onto the alfalfa. 

He seemed a little snorty and more high energy than I remembered when I had tried him out but I tossed it up to being in a new place with new things to worry about.  Then came the spooking and bolting, see How did you get there?.  I was not a fan, this wasn't the horse I signed up for and started to really worry about what to do with him.  He was snorting, bolting and generally nervous about everything.

 I started doing some research and found several comments and articles regarding alfalfa hay.  Some said it affected the horses energy, some said there was no definite proof.  Anyways, I decided to get him off the alfalfa, it took some convincing of the barn owner (mostly because it was so hard to find), but we got him back on grass...what a difference.

Some may think it was in my head, maybe so, but all I know is he became much more manageable and the calm, laid-back horse I had bought.  Sure he'll jump a little every now and then at a truck backfiring (who wouldn't).  But it would be a quick jump and look vs. a full on race to the barn.

We have been on grass for a while and he's been doing dandy.  I went on vacation over the New Years and the barn owner gave him some alfalfa while I was gone to keep him warm.  I told her that was fine, because I wasn't riding him, I saw she was still giving it to him as of Monday and asked her to stop being as I planned on riding once the snow melted. 

Fast forward (or rewind depending on where you are) to yesterday.  I went to ride him, knowing it was chilly, and that he had been off for a week, so I expected some extra spirit.  What I got was some extra stupid.  I knew we weren't going to get much accomplished when he started prancing and snorting just entering the barn.  As I tacked him up he calmed down and was OK when we first started riding.  The ground was still wet and slightly slick so we didn't do much.  But he was having trouble focusing and I could tell he was way more worried about just about everything except me.  We'd get one trot circle in then I'd feel him tense up.  His neck would get rigid and he'd take shorter steps.  For the most part we worked through it, but every once and a while I had to stop him and remind him I was still there.  There were a few times he jerked his head up to look at something, what, I don't know.  We rode for maybe 20 minutes working on transitions then called it a day.  I wasn't ready for another fall, and the slick ground worried me.  We stopped just in time, because as soon as I got off the boogieman came out.  He spun around, looked off into the distance and gave a big huge snort, you know the kind you see stallions do when they see a super cute filly.  He lifted his head to remind everyone just how big he was, and kept getting ahead of me and generally walking all over me.  We spent some time working on ground manners then went in. 

The thing is the alfalfa doesn't seem to give him extra energy, its not like he's moving faster or wants to run, it just makes him crazy/stupid, on edge really.  Everything is scary, he's worried about every little noise or movement of the wind.  Like last night he tripped over his own foot and decided that warranted a little buck/lunge/spin routine.  Did the ground offend him??  He becomes scatter-brained and unfocused.  It makes riding totally un-fun.  Maybe if I was younger and had a pair, I'd consider it a fun challenge. I've never known anything to alter a horses personality like that before, it really is bizarre to me and makes me think I'm the one with issues.

And maybe it is other elements that are causing this but it just seems way to coincidental.  Does anyone else have issues with alfalfa?  Some people swear by it.  I know the barn manager thinks I'm crazy because all her horses act fine on it. 

But luckily it isn't a permanent personality flaw, and all I have to do is keep him away from drugs, I mean alfalfa..

Another Spook?

Not us, but close to what we looked like.

He did it again!!  Me and Dexter were out riding yesterday evening and he was lazy the entire ride.  I don’t mind, he still gets his work done, just needs more convincing on some days.  And in fact he had a really good ride.  His canter work was more up than out and you could tell he was starting to get the whole collection thing and realizing the canter is nothing to stress about (something I have been trying to convince him of for months.)

 

So at the end of the ride, it was that time just before sunset where the wind stops blowing and everything is super quiet… remember that.. quiet.  I was walking him around the pasture with a loose rein allowing him to cool off and relax, and allowing myself, admittedly to start spacing out a little.  The next thing I know we’ve turned 90 degrees towards the barn and are 10 feet from where we were.  Dexter had spooked, again, at apparently nothing, again and was trying to take off.  As I scrambled to gather my reins and balance I was glad to see the standing martingale I had decided to ride in was doing its job.  It had distracted Dexter just enough to keep him for taking off completely and kept him just out of reach of locking his neck up so when I did find my reins I was able to turn him around and get him back in control. 

 

In general I am a minimalist when it comes to tack.  Not because I’m against artificial aids, just because its less to worry about and I am admittedly cheap.  But ever since Dexter has tried to make a habit of bolting, I’ve started riding in a standing martingale,  its set pretty loose so he can still stretch and move his head as he needs to.  I have it set just short enough so he can’t snap his head up and lock those massive neck muscles.  The several times he has bolted I’ve found I don’t have the leverage or strength to pull his head around and regain control.  When he’s not running from the devil Dexter has a relatively sensitive mouth and has done well on the french link bit we are working in, so I hate to change to a harsher bit when he does so well in this 99% of the time.  So the martingale seems to be a good compromise.  This was the first time he’s spooked since we started to use it, so I’m glad it worked, otherwise it was a long way back to the barn, in probably a very short time.

 

As to what he is spooking at?  I still have no idea.  Like I said, he was good the entire ride so I’m ruling out the tack.  It was beyond quiet, no birds, cars, wind… nothing.  Maybe a wasp?? Who knows.   I was just getting ready to hop off when he spooked, but since he had to act silly we trotted around the scary spot until he relaxed and then went in.  I had a theory that he did it knowing when he acted stupid I either fell off and he got to go in or I got scared and cut the ride short.  Since this new system has given me a little more confidence we will see if his issues start to decrease