Back to square one!

Dear me. Five whole years. We thought we'd cracked it, but there is no accouting for  Jazz after a few weeks without regular hacking because we were having more fun in the playpen. He was absolutely lethal. He was backward from the start, not wanting to carry me and dropping into his forehand. I can't say it was much of a surprise when, at our most common panic-place, he stopped dead with a madly beating heart when he glimpsed some hens scratching about the courtyard. But it was a shock when he lost the plot completely because a small blue car was parked just over the summit on the bend. He spun, he reared, he bucked violently, he backed into a gorse bush and then into a barbed wire fence, and all because I was trying to stop him spinning and bolting for home, not actually trying to make him approach it.

When he breasted a rusty steel gate at the side of the road I knew I would have to get off. I led him up to the car, and round and around it. I got back on and road him down the hill and tried to turn him to ride back up it, and away he went again. I got off again - it's against my policy with him but he was seriously dangerous and I had to. I led him up to the car again, and round and around it again. I rode him a little way away from it and turned. I rode him a little further away from it and turned. I rode him until it was out of sight and turned. Then we completed our ride in a semblance of peace.

I really did think we had this sorted, but it's now clear that if you don't keep him exposed to things that he fears he builds them right back up in his mind again. It's genuine fear, his heart was pumping my feet outwards from his sides. But it is utterly unjustified  in any normal horse's book and downright dangerous.

Thank goodness he is doing so well in the arena, because I will only give him one more shot at hacking out before I accept that he just isn't a hacking horse. I can hardly believe it, I own THREE horses and not ONE of them is just a nice, quiet hack! At least the other two are safe.

Ace was very sweet for his first ever clip this morning. He has an enormously thick coat, over an inch in length, but it was very silky and like butter to cut through. That was good because it meant that I could do him quickly and he now sports a very fetching bib and belly clip.  He hardly showed any nerves, only swinging about once on the end of the rope. When I finished I thought "I'll ride him now" and then a little voice in my ear said "Would that be wise? You know how he bottles up his fears and then suddenly explodes. Should you really ride him now before he is used to having the wind on his bare belly?". So I rugged him up, and as I did up a surcingle, he bit my boot! That is so uncharacteristic of him that I know I was right and he was at the end of his tether of being messed about with today. I did smack him as a reflex when I felt his teeth meet my calf through the rubber, but we made friends quickly and I turned him out.

C.