A tale of two horses

Well actually not two horses, but it may as well be.  I hacked Ace out yesterday and its as clear as daylight that he is simply not enjoying himself. He'll do it, but it certainly isn't because he likes it, or is even indifferent to it. Contrasting it with the happy relaxed horse I rode on the arena today (more about that later), and I can't help but wonder what the point is of forcing him to do something he finds so unenjoyable.

Until I had Jazz, I would have sworn to the death that there was no horse which would not eventually either enjoy hacking out, or at the very least suppress its dislike so that it was unreactive to it.

Then Jazz put that arrogance right back where it belonged, and anyone else who thinks otherwise needs to wait until they meet a horse who is simply terrified that there are daffodils growing on a verge where they were not last week :-)

I've only had the two, Ace, who is much more polite about it than Jazz was, and jazz, who was extreme. There's a horse that competes PSG on HHO forum  with a very experienced rider who won't hack safely too, so more,exist, and of course Jean has Tucker , who in the early days would not even be led out on a trail ride with a professional trainer.

So let's get to the point, which is, is there any point in making a horse which does not want to hack do it? What fun is there in forcing a creature, even when you can do it safely as I now can, to do what he simply doesn't want to do?  He's radiating enthusiasm on the arena, and radiating the opposite about hacking out.

The only reason I can think of to make him continue is that it's good for his feet. I could just about see the suggestion that it's good for his training to get him to understand that I can make him do things he doesn't want to do, but he is so physically talented and mentally in tune with dressage that I fail to see how forcing him to hack along a road against his will is going to help me teach him tempi changes. (though passage and piaffe can sometimes be the result and we had a couple of nice levades yesterday :-)

I school Radar when he doesn't want to school because it's beneficial for all our other work to develop his athleticism and my control of his huge frame. I can use my rasp on Ace's feet to replicate the road wear, and I'm struggling but failing to see any other benefit.  In the old days, I'd really have enjoyed 'winning' by making a horse do what it disliked doing. I'm struggling now to see what benefit it can be to either of us.  Especially when I bought him purely for dressage.

Ideas on a postcard from everyone who hasn't read this as me chickening out of hacking  Ace, please - should I carry on, or not?


Part two.

Oh golly gosh, fourth schooling session in a row where Ace has just been superb
 I can now use trot and canter early in the warm up phase and he is working more and more consistently with the contact with a marked absence of tail swishing. Today I reintroduced shoulder in in trot with no problem at all. I also took the trot work back out to the side of the arena where the cat scared us both witless without any signs of tension. After two or three walk trot transitions he releases a superb up and forward trot, and once I've got that I can get medium on the straights, collect the corners, and he's really lengthening. This is the exercise that let me know in no uncertain terms that the painkilling injections had worn off, so it's taken a bit of courage for us both to really commit to it, but we've got it now.


Bearing in mind that according to our rehab instructions, he should not start canter work for another two weeks, and then only on straight lines, I keep the canter to two circuits in a low frame, but he is quiet, willing  and flexible.

We were supposed to have a lesson with our new trainer yesterday but it's been postponed to next Wednesday. It will be our first trip away from home since the operation, and I am really looking forward to it.


Part three

Gosh it's a long one today!!!

Radar is 100% sound unless he treads on a stone with the thin part of his sole.  I could have him shod with a plate of plastic to protect it, but I would rather miss hunting for another couple of weeks than do that. Tomorrow's will be a real loss, but the week after is a bad journey and one I never go to anyway.

I'll just have to sit on my hands for a while longer.

C