Welp. I'm not one of those people who can't admit when they were wrong. So I shall tell you, I was wrong to withhold jumping from Al. So very wrong. Like the wrongest wrong to ever wrong. That boy is BESIDE himself. Practically unrideable.
You see what happened was, I thought I had beat the system by signing him up for a training ride last week. But I wasn't specific in my request and it was just a flat ride. In which he was just as much of a spooky a-hole for the trainer as he is for me, but I digress... The ride wasn't what I had hoped for because I really wanted him to jump to get his head back on straight. Since he didn't, he has snowballed into the biggest spookasaurus that ever spooked. Like ever.
We attempted a flat lesson today and it was probably one of my top ten worst rides on him. He nearly got me off once, and has decided there is no safe space anywhere in the indoor. Mind you, he had a free lunge in the morning. Then spent several hours outside with his friends. Then he got worked on by his favorite body worker. AND THEN we had the lesson. So he had a pretty fab day prior. I don't even know what's wrong with his brain, but man. Something isn't right up there. He got this way at home too just before we moved, so it's certainly not location specific.
I am not a quitter though. I will figure this horse out. Some day. Hopefully. Plan for the rest of the week is to have a training ride WITH JUMPS tomorrow. And then I will lesson on Thursday. And if he's still a spookasaurus after that? Well... I dunno. But I'll keep trying.
My other confession though, is that when he's like this, I lose my brave. And without that, it's hard for me to really dig deep and be tough and give him the ride he needs. Usually I have Eros to help me find that confidence but since he's on the injured list, I'm kind of having to face this without him. And it's tough. All I can do is keep trying though. He's too nice of a horse to give up on.
Any of you have a horse like this? What are some things that have worked for you? If it helps to understand what I'm dealing with, when Al spooks, it's not just a little hairy eyeball and a bulge away. It's a full on prop and spin. And sometimes there's no prop, just the spin, and that's when I have a hard time holding on. He'll pretty happily follow another horse around the ring, but the moment we separate from that horse, he reverts right back to being spooky. I can hand walk him back and forth around what he's scared of. But at each gait, and each direction at each gait even, it's like we have to start from scratch. I can't imagine he enjoys life like this anymore than I do. So we have to figure this out.
Ben doesn't do the awful dump me spin, but he does spook a lot. What we do is make it incredibly boring. He has to do soft, slow (low energy but still powerful) circles right before/by whatever he spooked at until he's done. We usually have to repeat this at each gait because when he's moving faster he'll try it again. And he's not allowed to migrate away from the spooky thing, he must keep turning back to it. Sometimes this is ALL we do for 30 minutes.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing, which I'm sure you covered, is that when he has ulcers he has a much harder time coming back to earth and relaxing. Treating the ulcers certainly doesn't make him not spook. But it does make it so he can recover and reinstall his brain after a spook instead of just escalating further and further.
Forgot to add, definitely have to start from scratch both directions too. Or sometimes he'll be fine tracking right past something but then jump out of his skin when we go left. Or be fine going by it, but if we change direction and he has to point AT something on the rail, he won't be able to deal.
DeleteYep, that's how he can be too. He doesn't give up the ghost though. It could be over an hour, and it never ends. But this is mostly the approach I take too. Just keep at it and wait for the most part.
DeleteWe've treated for ulcers before and it hasn't made any difference. But I am going to ask doc if we should scope just in case.
ugh Al, c'mon buddy :( hopefully getting him back to jumping in training rides helps take the edge off!! and then maybe things will get back to normal when everybody goes back down to florida?? ugh, good luck tho!
ReplyDeleteThat would have been a good plan, but it seems I'm on my own with him, no more training rides. So I'm just going to have to dig REAL deep and do it myself.
DeleteThis sounds familiar. If you’re sure it’s not physical (e.g., ulcers) then it’s behavioural. With Carmen, I find it’s more about getting out of work and has a bullying component. I find keeping her brain busy helps and absolutely no rest except for ‘good behaviour’. When she spins and bolts I make her canter a circle until she wants to stop and then I canter more. I’m not mad (although tbh I am likely peeved). It’s more about embracing her idea and going with it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not completely sure there's not a physical component to it someplace. He sure doesn't seem like a comfortable, happy horse. But I think we're dealing with a little bit of both. I do need to get better at keeping the feet moving. Sometimes when he spooks i get pretty unseated and I need to slow down to get re-centered. I think in the grand scheme of things, I need to be stronger, and braver to work through this with him. And maybe there's something doc will find that we can fix too.
DeleteComing in late - my last lease, L was spooky AF. Like drop the shoulder, turn bolt and take off with no warning sometimes. I found in 3 years of leasing it came down to a really well fitting saddle (it needed to be better but it was miles better than what we had before) 4 scoops daily of quiessence, a noise cancelling ear bonnet, and weirdly, lot of just walking on a loose rein to get confidence which, believe me, is way harder than it sounds when your horse likes to drop and run what felt like Mach 15. On the days after we fixed all that and he was still on edge, we needed a lot of lateral work to focus, he found it incredibly hard so putting his brain to work got his mind off bolting.
ReplyDeleteI think he had some serious back pain previous saddle fitters never really addressed, so he was always operating on edge undersaddle. So when one small thing happened, it would send him over the edge. The last year I rode him we barely had any spooks, let alone the kind I used to battle my first year of riding.
I wish you all the luck, it's definitely tough and I've been there with losing your brave. Doesn't help the North East weather is doing loop de loos either.
He's DEFINITELY a better horse when it's warm out, that's for sure!
DeleteAl's saddle fits well, and his body worker doesn't feel anything in his back at all. I kind of wish it was that so I could fix it! But definitely a good suggestion, because saddle fit can certainly contribute to these behaviors.
Lateral work is a great idea. I was using that technique today, and it does help. At least until it doesn't anymore... but I'll take a few steps of better anyway. Gotta start somewhere. Maybe I'll try quiessence. Shiny is on it because it contains some ingredients that help with metabolic stuff. Al doesn't seem wild, just spooky, but maybe it will help take that edge off. Great suggestion!
Beautiful blog
ReplyDeletePlease read my post
ReplyDeleteMagnesium? Selenium? Vit E? Mag was my first thought and it's pretty easy to give a try. I know Hillary had success with NupaFeed in the past.
ReplyDeleteYes! He's on Vitamin E, but doc just told me I haven't been giving enough, so I'm adjusting that. I have magnesium on the list of next things to try if our current plan doesn't pan out. He doesn't really get wild, just spooky, so not sure if it would help, but I'm willing to try just about anything!
Delete