I hacked Ace out this morning and he was just looking for trouble everywhere. He asked to trot, so I let him, but he was dying to find something to spook at and turn tail. The road was quite slippy and I simply didn't trust him, so I brought him back to walk until he calmed down a bit. We were on our way back home before he realised that no-one was listening to his nonsense, and relaxed. It was a day when I would have been in big trouble if I hadn't worked out a few months ago that the way to manage him when he is like this is just to ignore him. We would both have got into a terrible fight and come home in a muck sweat. This way, when we got home he was as soft as a pudding, nuzzling my side as I took off his tack :-)
SH and I have been out for a walk and now I quite feel like getting Woody in and schooling him on the arena, since it is still dry out there for the second day in a row (wow!). But I'm not sure whether that will just wipe me out for the rest of the day. I'll think about it.
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That's funny - Tetley was full of beans today too. He actually spooked and then pretended he was going to take off. I think he's getting back into shape, is what I think.
ReplyDeleteOh, I was going to say the other day... I think the hardest part about serpentines is straightening the horse before the change of bend. We can do it one direction ( from right - his stiff side, to left) but not the other.
yes it's an interesting exercise for identifying one-sidedness, isn't it?
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