They're Weird. :-P

One of the best old-time horsemen I ever knew, who had a lovely dry sense of humor, used to ponder lengthily and respond to "Why do horses do this?" questions that he didn't know the answer to by drawling: "They're weird."

Sorry people, but tonight I'm thinking Quattro is Weird.

I've been hearing from the barn folks for quite some time that he pretty much loses his mind when he sees a horse with a rider on his back. Tonight I actually got to see him do it, and holy moley, they are NOT kidding! I had him out for his evening hand-graze when he spotted a ridden horse a couple of pastures away, and it was like INSTANT meltdown... plunging around in circles and then just planting and snorting in terror and totally ready to bolt.

If a horse doesn't want to eat GRASS, it's got an issue with something.

It took me a good 20 minutes to get him back to normal ...and thank you, kind neighbor-I-haven't-met-yet, for stopping your horse and standing it in the corner until you saw Quattro drop his head... I owe ya one!

But, now here's the punch line: twice this week, he has let ME stand on the mounting block and hang all over him - lie across him kicking my legs, waving my arms, patting his tummy on the far side - and he stays perfectly relaxed. Not a foot moves. And I did it again tonight, not 20 minutes after the meltdown episode, with the same result.

Like the man said: They're weird! :-P

I think what really needs to happen is that Quattro needs to go off to a saddle seat barn and stand in a stall all day while people ride up and down the aisle past him until he just plain gets over himself... (You can tell I'm exasperated here, right?) Of course, whatever trainer ends up with him won't thank me for that, because for the first few days, he's guaranteed to rush around his stall screaming in terror and trying to climb the walls... So perhaps an academy barn is not the best idea, because you don't need a stalled horse who's a nervous wreck scaring the lesson kids' horses... I'm still mulling this problem over.

Anyway....

We also had our first ground-driving lesson tonight, and it went a lot better than I expected. I must say, it's a lot easier to teach a horse to ground drive who is very, very forward by nature (which Quattro is) than it is a lazy balker who'd far prefer to plant all fours and eat grass (which Avery was). We got some nice forward movement, practiced our turns (which need work!), and I was very pleased.

The big problem we're going to have with ground-driving is that he is SO remedially whip-shy. It goes against the grain with me to try to teach a horse to ground drive without a whip in my hand, but he's so much more relaxed without it and resists so much less, I'm leaving it on the ground for now while we're still in restricted space.

Lastly, this blog is going to have to go part time for the next couple of months and just get updates at the weekend. My favorite band the Manic Street Preachers have a new CD coming out, and since they NEVER come to the USA, I'll be following all the activities online. But unless you hear otherwise, assume that...

...the adventure continues!