Well, firstly I must apologies for my lack of posts! I went a million miles an hour, and then took a week off - which ended up being a couple of weeks. Of course i have still been doing a bit of stuff with the horses, which I will do some back blogs on. I farewelled my old dog on Friday 7th May, after 14 years together it was his time, so I havent really been that inspired to write, though I have been spending time with the horses, they are like therapy.
Today I decided to ride Cooper - I havent ridden him for at least a week - my mum was visiting, then I was show prepping him, clipping him etc, and I just didnt get on his back, so I decided today to hop on. Normally I would have maybe lunged him about today to take a bit of the edge off, and then ridden him tommorow, or at least taken him on a trail today, give him a path to follow, and just get him a little tired. In the show prep I have been feeding him twice a day and he looks fantastic (not too big though - he is only 3!). I knew he would be full of beans but I decided to head down to the river flat to do some circles, Phil was riding his gelding, and I was on Cooper.
Firstly I saddled him and headed down the paddock to his bottom gate, to lead him through and down to the yards where I was meeting Phil. We got through the gate, and the juniors were in the yards and Rosie and Squizzy were waiting there as well. A road seperates Coopers Paddock and the yards - so he can see them, but he cant get up close. Well, how exciting! Here he was coming out of his paddock, and lo and behold GIRLS! Looking at HIM! (or so he thought!). He started up with his big loud stallion whinnys, to prove to the girls he was worthy of their attention. Phil still wasnt down there to meet me so i had to wait - Awesome. What a great opportunity to get his mind, when he clearly has his mind on more important issues! I started by backing him up (i was on the ground) and asking him to lunge around me, change direction, disengage his hind - all movements that required him to keep his eye on me, and not the girls. I allowed him to stop a few times and rest, and as soon as he started screaming - i asked him to work again. There is a theory that horses will only expand as much energy as they deem necessary, and to them necessary comes down to survival - if you are in the wild, and you use all your energy up playing, and a predator comes along and you dont have enough energy to get away. You die. Pretty simple. It took about 4 minutes for Cooper to realise that if he stood still, I would let him look over at the girls, but if he so much as hinted that he was displaying for them (whinny, posturising, prancing), that he would be asked to work. Once we established this I mounted him to wait for phil, and the same rules applied. Phil appeared after about a minute, and we headed to the river flat. We pranced and danced a little, but I didnt make a big deal of it - i just stopped him from prancing, made him walk, and headed down to the paddock.
He pretty much calmed down, but then when we arrived on the river flat - lo and behold - more horses! This time he couldnt care less if they were girls or boys - they were just there to pay attention to him! Phil opened the gate and i asked him through, rode a distance away from the horses in the paddock (who could not have been more disinterested in cooper if they tried) and put him to work. This was an awesome opportunity for me to educate him about the difference between work and play time. When I go to a show, I wont put up with bad behaviour because there is mares around. So he tried it on me once - struck off into the canter (without my asking) and decided that a leap into the air and a buck and rearing landing would impress the onlookers (who werent looking). I ignored it, kept on going and just kept his mind by doing frequent changes of direction, changes of gait, halt, back up etc. I did probably around half an hour of this at walk and trot, before i asked for the canter, and then we did a few ‘workouts’ - when i say workout, i just make up something that would be given to you at a hack show or western show, with walk, trot, canter and change of directions, and run with it. I stopped him and allowed him to rest in between, and we ended up with some really nice stuff. Home time.
I beleive there is a balance between work and play, whats acceptable and whats not. I felt today was a win for both of us, some people would have worked him until he was almost dead for playing up, but the way i see it i left him in a reasonable place. I showed him that i was more important than girls, i made him tired enough for him to think, hmm ive been trotting and circling for a while - maybe if i concentrate this will end, without making it a total nightmare for him. Yes i needed to make him a little tired, but in part that was my fault - he had little work and a fair amount of feed in the preceeding week. I was also working with nature. nature tells him that he has to keep breeding, nature tells him when mares are around to posturise, whinny and show off to get their attention. I have a performance horse - I want him to get attention! My job, as i see it, is to harness this desire to show off, and turn it into passage, piaffe, extended trot, sliding stops and pirouettes. If i tell him he is wrong when he carries on a bit, then I will crush this spirit - what i need to do is let him know its ok to feel that way - but he has to take the cues from me and use his energy in ways that are desirable - for both him and me. He has not served any mares yet, but nature tells him what to do - it really is incredible to watch.
I took him to the Coffs Harbour show on Friday and he was an absolute angel. I only went for the led class - but our ring was the last one - so we had to walk past every concievable type of horse there is, with all types of behaviour, mares, stallions and geldings from minatures to crazy thoroughbreds! And he was perfect! He didnt whinny, didnt play up, and then when he was tied to the float - he went to sleep! So i am super happy with his temperament.
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