Ace hasn't read the book

Ace hasn't read the book. Either that, or he read it at four and then spent three years with things hurting every time he tried to do what it said, so now he doesn't believe the book any more.  I'm talking about the book that says that all young or unsure horses must be ridden firmly at a particular speed in a partcular direction.

I got on in the middle of the yard and picked up the reins on the buckle, or at least where the buckle would be if they weren't plastic reins without a buckle :-)  He walked up the yard, out of the gate and refused to turn left and go down the hill, instead he turned right (which is a very  unusual manoeuvre for him) and tried to go up the hill. I turned him back but he would not go home, he tried to turn again and carry on the hack.

What at eye-opener that was!  It's not that he doesn't like  hacking at all, it's that he doesn't want to go down the hill. The reason for that needs  a little more exploration, but there is no way that I would have known it unless I had allowed him to express an opinion and listened to it when he spoke.

I got off and walked him down the hill to watch and see if he had any physical difficulty with it. He didn't appear to. I got on from a bank at the bottom, again took the non-existent buckle in my hand, and off we went for a lovely and completely spook free hack, with a slow stride but a completely free and swinging back.  I even had to stop him and turn him to come home again.

He's not confident, he's cautious, but he's a hell of a lot more confident than when I pick up the reins and try to force him to increase the pace. That just raises his fear of pain to levels that he can't tolerate and he tries to go home. Leave him to take the time he needs to assure himself that nothing is hurting, and all the problems disappear.

This, for me, is what riding is all about. It's not about what books say. It's not even always about what knowledgeable people who actually know the horse say.  It's about knowing when you need to listen to the horse and when it's just having you on. It's about when things were working and then stop working, going back to what you were doing when they were working and trying to figure out what went wrong.

Ace doesn't have a nasty bone in his body. He's the most forgiving creature I've ever come across. Twice this year alone I have taken the pain away from him only to 'betray' him and let it come back again. Once with the injections and again with the bute. Why should he trust me this time? I know at least two horses with no physical reason for their refusal to be ridden after kissing spines operations. I am so, so lucky that Ace forgave me a third time. What a lovely, lovely boy he is.

I don't doubt that it's going to take  a long, long  time to despook him in a dressage arena, if it's even possible. And do you know what? I don't care if it isn't possible. If he never believes that an arena can be pain free, I can completely understand where he's coming from. I'll just have fun training him at home and thank my lucky stars to ride such a talented horse on my fabulous arena.

:-)


C