• He has been learning things faster than his body can keep up with. Basically, while he has the mind to learn things, his body is still quite gangly and awkward and not strong. For crying outloud he knows A LOT for such a youngster. He won't be 4 until June. My instructor said that I will likely encounter periods where it will appear that we won't make much progress as I have to wait for his body to catch up with his education.
• His right hind leg is weak. I knew this already, and we discussed that at this point the best thing I can do is just to make him stronger. The leg (actually I think it is the hock) may become an issue in the future, or it may not. But even with a perfect horse, you can't guarantee it will stay sound.
• Installing buttons. Here are some exercises we need to test his buttons:
• Leg yield off the wall to the right a few steps. Then turn him off my right leg and swing the shoulders around and go the other direction. Repeat off both legs and directions.
• Trot down long side. Walk transition. Halt. Back a few steps, then trot off.
• Lots of turning the shoulders.
• Keep the withers up. He's still quite croup high in the canter.
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| Ladies can't resist this!! |
And on a funny note ... seems Mr. Hampton loves blondes. At one point, there was a lovely bombshell blonde Belgian cross mare lunging. Hampton took one look at her and his head shot so far up on the air I thought I was riding a saddlebred. He began calling to her and got quite distracted. He eventually came back to me, but continued the shouting and calling BS for a while. In fact when I went to load him back in the trailer, he started that crap back up and didn't load as easily as he usually does. Brat.
What do you all do to handle a horse that has this shouting/calling issue? T-Bone was HORRIBLE about it and at that time I really didn't know better and would punish him when he would scream. So, he learned to scream and then BOLT because he knew what was coming. I do NOT want that again, so today I just ignored Hampton except maybe a little bump with my inside leg to try and get his attention. I hope it will go away with more miles. Any tips welcome.
Annnd I think I'm going to ride AGAIN today. In the snow this time though. Ah well.
I had this problem a couple years ago with a friend's 4 year old mare that I was working with. The solution that finally worked for us was to stop whatever we were doing and I would take her into a tiny circle and give her a firm smack with the crop, then continue on. After months of the calling behavior she stopped doing it very quickly with this technique. Good luck!
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Adventures In Colt Starting
Loving this "warm up" we are having. Makes for halfway decent riding weather. Hampton sounds like he is an amazing boy especially at his age. And BOO to hock issues.
ReplyDeleteI usually ignore calling - it's a pretty typical young horse behavior and almost always goes away on its own if you ignore it - I think that it's better to just let in wane on its own rather than fighting with/punishing the horse for the behavior - that doesn't do anything to build a positive relationship and involves focusing on what you don't want instead of building what you do want. What I do instead is just keep on working, focusing on exercises that bring the horse's attention back to what we are doing - figure work, transitions - anything to engage the horse's mind. Works for me.
ReplyDeleteJackson used to call a lot when we would go to a show or trailer for a lesson. At our first show, in the first test I rode, I was very patient with him -- just ignoring the behavior and the judge complimented me. Then a friend told me that Jackson was being disrespectful and I should smack or kick him when he called. So I did that during the second test and got (rightfully) hammered by the judge. My trainer has taught me to ignore the behavior and it has diminished as Jackson gains confidence. Hampton is young, he'll get there. Be patient.
ReplyDeleteAwwww, babies are fun, right? Hampton is such a sweet boy. He'll get there...I don't want to give you bad advice, but just be patient. Love that cute boy! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with 'ignore it.' My last horse did this everywhere we went for a while, eventually it just went away. One nice thing about Nina, she's not very social.
ReplyDeleteHampton is such a cutie. Great write up on his lesson. Re the weak hock (?) - Rogo had a hock that 'clicked' alot when I got him as a 2 year old. I asked the vet about it and he told me if it was still clicking when he was seven to be worried then. He's five now, and it's been gone for awhile. One thing that helped was omega oils. Maybe a completely different thing with Hampton but I thought I'd mention it. I wonder if Hampton's weakness could just be a growing joint / young horse thing?
ReplyDeleteI found our our two older horses would call when I took one for a hack, but over time it has reduced to almost nothing. I didn't do anything to correct it other than sometimes keep them busy, mostly just ignore it. I'm very fortunate in that Rogo (the 5 year old) has never minded being left alone, except at his first show he called when Savanah (his barn mate) left him, but not when he left her. Men eh? :) Anyway, that didn't last. Hampton sounds like the confident sort that will just out grow it as you take him places and do new things.
He is such a good student :)
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