The beast
I grabbed the big boy first. The 18-hand luv bug known as Noah. For now, I'm just lunging him in a halter and lunge line - he already knows how to wear a saddle so I don't have to worry about that. He needs to learn about lunging. He did pretty well today, only "protesting" once or twice. Need to work on sharper "whoas" but all in all I was happy with him. The BO took photos and wait until you see how big he is next to me! lol! Thank goodness he is good natured because he is too big to have an attitude!
And now, the little %%*^&$* !!
I wish I had photos. Or a helmet cam. My lesson with Hampton actually started out well. We were working on the usual things - staying uphill. Keeping the bend. We started to work on the canter loop from the old First Level Test 4 and out of no where (and this is after working for 45 minutes), Hampton decides he IS. NOT. GOING. NEAR. the CORNER OF DEATH. Which he has been quietly trotting by for the past 45 minutes. WTF. Every time we approached the Horse Eating Corner, his head would shoot up and he would balk. I tried to keep leg yielding him out and keeping him looking into the arena - instead of at the Demons In the Corner.
After I untacked, I took him back to the Horse Eating Corner of Horror and let him eat grass there. Seemed fine. Go figure.
Tomorrow I plan to lunge him exclusively in that corner. And that will be his workout. :)
Gotta love young horses.
How do you know that the dragon didn't just come home 45 minutes into the lesson and then leave again while you were untacking? You just really don't know.
ReplyDeleteOh that is so maddening when they do that, after being fine with an area. My Appaloosa will do the same thing - work for half an hour in the indoor just fine and suddenly he spooks 20 feet sideways every time you ask him to go by a banner that he's passed all session. Maybe Barbara has a point :)
ReplyDeletelol!! While I know that Hampton does have a naughty streak, my gut feeling is that there really WAS something in that corner - I have seen a wild turkey out in the woods before (that are just beyond that end of the arena) and while I didn't see it today, I have to wonder if Hampton did ...
ReplyDeleteAh, yes.....the horse eating corner! I think every arena has one somewhere! ;)
ReplyDeleteOur arena has a horse eating corner too. Ugh.
ReplyDeletelove your choice of illustrations
Ohh the Horse Eating Corner of Horror. Gotta love it. My horse used to consistently stand in it when let free and hang out and eat there, but when being lunged or ridden past it he would FLIP OUT. We had many days of lunging in that corner until he went through quietly. My horse is also young. He mysteriously stopped doing it one day, and hasn't since, though I have no idea why.
ReplyDeleteSkunks are horrible. We had one a few years ago that decided our tack room was its home. He would NOT leave, and because of him constantly trying to spray people the smell was awful. After a few weeks he one day just decided to leave. The smell stayed forever though.