I'm absolutely shattered!

[carthorse]

I had a lesson ths morning & now all I want to do is sleep I'm so tired. I already ache in places so I dread to think how I'll feel tomorrow, it may well be painkillers before I ride.

The reason? His lordship is in spring mode - arrogant, rude & bolshy. He wasn't exactly polite in the stable this morning & there was a definate "discussion" about bandages but then he calmed down. Warmed up quietly enough though he was rather inattentive & slpw to reapond. Then asked him to start working, to give some activity, bend & softness. Nothing that he can't do easily but he just wasn't playing, all he wanted to do was set against me & bowl on through the contact. Half halt, lateral flexion, transitions, changes of rein - nothing was working. If I started to get through he'd just try to yank the rein away & then set his neck & shoulder - not amusing or easy to resist on a 16.2 ID.

So we stopped (I needed to get my breathe back anyway!) & had a long chat with my RI without the distraction of riding at the same time. We both agreed he was being incredibly rude & trying his best to bully me. She was the one that brought up the spring idea, it sounds daft but we seem to have this same problem every year - it seems the grass starts to grow, the mares start coming into season, his manners leave the country & he firmly believes he's God! The answer seems to be work, coming down on any undesirable behaviour like a ton of bricks, a very positive determined attitude & occassionally nerves of steel.

Once I'd got my breath back we started again with a very different attitude from me. Any aids were to be listened to instantly - if I needed to ask twice the second ask was a telling off. He yanked the rein I yanked right back & sent him strongly forward. Bulldozering meant halt, rein back then go forward politely. And if he'd got the energy to fight then the work wasn't hard enough so we upped the ante. Fortunately the paddy never progressed to bucking & running off & after about 10min he went like a dream though if I relaxed for a second he'd grab the chance. We even got some good shoulder in & the most gorgeous canter! The downside is my back muscles are starting to stiffen, my thighs feel like jelly & I've got a headache from how tight my shoulders feel. I really really hope we're not heading for weeks of this, sometimes he snaps out of it fairly quickly but more often he'll keep trying it on until things come to a head & he finally accepts that I'm not to be bossed or bullied.

I love the silly sod but at times like this I wish he had a bit less attitude & a lot less muscle

 

[gordysgirl]

Lol, I think there is a lot of spring fever in the air, several of the horses on our yard are feeling rather bolshy this week!
My supposedly lame horse keeps on carting off with poor lady whos trotting him up!
I have to take a similar approach with him otherwise he gets very big for his boots - a neck strap is usually required at this time of year!
Hope he settles down soon, maybe a radox bath might help relieve some of that tension?

 

[carthorse]

Radox is definately on the list for later, as is a large glass of wine! For now I've had to make do with lots of coffee & chocolate in the hope that caffeine & sugar will give me a buzz & some energy

There's no point in putting a neck strap on Jim, if he's mad enough to start bucking then nothing is going to keep me on & I can usually sit anything else he does in the school. My plans to get him hacking out again are now on hold until he's shown he's more amenable & attentive, I can't see the point in asking for trouble.

Lame horses are so irritating at times! I can remember a work experience girl being asked to catch Jim for the farrier when he was on three legs with an abcess. It sounds simple, particularly when he was on a small patch, but he wasn't having any of it from her or the YO & the farrier declined to try saying he'd rather wait for me. So the work experience assessor was treated to the sight of two people unable to catch a horse that would hardly put one hoof on the ground in an area about the size of two stables & when he commented to the farrier was just met with a shrug & "that's Jim!". When I arrived he came straight to the gate, plonked his nose in the headcollar & hopped across the yard like butter wouldn't melt

 

[gordysgirl]

Lol, yes Gord is much the same! It kinda makes me smile in a twisted way that he will do anything for me but is a little cheeky with others!

Yes I would def add large glass of wine to the list!

 

[carthorse]

Boy did I feel stiff this morning! My back, stomach muscles & thighs felt as if they'd completely seized up & I was hobbling round like an old lady of 90 when I first got out of bed. Luckily I did loosen up a lot when I kept moving round

I'd booked another lesson for today because when he's like this another set of eyes is useful - I'd feel dreadful if I was jumping all over him unnecessarily but also it's reassuring to know that there's someone there if it all goes wrong & I get dumped! Well he was a lot better than yesterday but there were still definate flashes of attitude & he took a lot of riding to keep him focused & obedient so I don't think we've seen the end of it yet. He only made one serious attempt at yesterday's tricks but he tried some new ones instead including his favourite falling through the shoulders . Still at least he wasn't as determined, I wasn't reduced to an exhausted mess by the end of the session & we got quite a lot of good work so overall I was very pleased with him. He also finished in a much better frame of mind - far more relaxed, responsive & co-operative.