Ooooooooo Kayyyyyyyyy. That was interesting.......... if not very productive.
Today I did not even finish the test. I did not even get half way through it. He blew up in the second trot section at the letter R and there was no hope of completing the test, so I retired.
He had warmed up fine. He bucked once early on and I booted him into the trot and then he behaved. He was looking for things to make a fuss about, but he did accept being told not to do it. Then we went up to the arena, and there was only one competition arena running so there was plenty of space to work him. Again he was attempting to be silly at the letter but he accepted being told not to.
But in the ring it was a different matter altogether. It worked to start with and the first trot was pretty good. The first canter was not bad, but the second trot blew his mind.
SH was watching and not filming today, so we had a discussion about what was going on. SH said that he felt that the spooking is related to how fast he is going, and that it looks as though it builds up with the faster work until he reaches an overload situation and his brain fries.
That is exactly what I experience at home too, where he will very often be fine at the blue barrels in walk, be suspicious in trot and be downright spooky in canter.
We now have three options.
1. Stop competing him and only ride at home.
2. Send him to someone experienced to make sure it is not me, and to tell me if they think that there is a cure.
3. The option we have chosen. Since putting the difficulty up has not produced a good result, put the difficulty down. Doing only one test has also resulted in worse behaviour not better. Next week, I will book for two walk and trot only tests. If that results in a spook-free performance then we know what the answer is - compete several levels below the level that he is working at home. If he still spooks, then we go to option one or two, probably two......
It's unlikely that this is me, because I must have done dressage on 30 or more horses and never had this trouble before, but there is a possibility that it is, and that has to be ruled out. I also think it's unlikely that the person who I plan to send him to will have any ideas I have not already tried (with all the suggestions I have had on here and elsewhere!) but I have to keep an open mind that there may be a possibility of another approach.
I guess life would be pretty boring if it all went smoothly, wouldn't it?
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Oh, phooey. I was hoping for better.
ReplyDeleteWell, here's the thing. Tucker. He would blow up in the warmup and test with me, but for my trainer? He was fine. (I'd been showing dressage for years at that point.)At one show, I had my trainer warm him up. Then as soon as I got on...disaster. What I suspect is that Tucker knew my trainer would not put up with any nonsense--even if it was caused by ulcers (this was pre-ulcer treatment) But I would, and had to listen to his problems. He was so scary that day, I never did compete.
Going back to basics is always a good option. With the distractions of being away from home, it could well be Ace's brain just overloads and the extra thought process needed to complete the exercises just blows it completely. If both you and he are 100% convinced he can do everything in the test without any problems at all, it may help him gain some self-confidence. It's certainly worth a try.
I'm running out of options Jean ...... he started the season so well, this incredibly frustrating.
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I understand. I was there with Tucker. He did settle down, so there is hope. I just semi-retired him because he was getting sore in his hocks. Strangely enough, when I stopped competing I didn't miss it at all. I was at a show recently and there was virtually no tug at all to get into the competition arena.
ReplyDeleteAll that being said, I think pain memory in horses is pretty strong. If Ace associates the competition with pain, he may need some desensitizing. The easier tests might do the trick. If you see any improvement at all at the next show, be heartened.
Have you seen Dressage Anywhere, Jean? It may be an option for Ace, so we can still have something to focus our training on.
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