Tuesday 15 February 2011

It was all going SO well.

I should have known really what was in store for me when I went to bring Lukey in from the field and had a silly, snorting fool on the end of the lead rope. Ever since a) I've taken his rug off, and b) the electric fencing has been working properly he's been a sod to bring in, or rather, a sod to get through the gateway. All our fencing is electric, with gate handles on elasticated rope. He can hear the 'click' and must, at some point since his rug removal, have had a good zap off it, because he now really hates going anywhere near that gateway. It's very good that he now has a decent level of respect for it, but not so good when you're trying to take him through the gate without getting trampled!

Anyway, I digress.

Got him in, brushed him off(well, scraped the worst of the mud off), and tacked him up. Saddle, bridle and bungee fitted over the head, through the bit rings and clipped(on one side) to D ring on the saddle, and tied(because the stupid sod snapped the clip) to the D ring on the other side.
I had decided to lunge him today, as on all previous occasions over the last week he'd been long lined.
 Now, on the lunge, Lukey throws tantrums on the left rein, and just arses about on the right rein(remember that bit for later).
So, with lunge line attached, hat and gloves on, and lunge whip in hand off we went.

From our last few sessions, he knew I was going to ask him to work from the start, so I only had to gesture with the whip and he jumped into trot*good boy!*.
I had, before I tacked up, set up some trotting poles in the arena, and planned on using them once he'd knuckled down abit.
We began the session on the left rein, and I was expecting tantrums. Well, I didn't get tantrums, more a diluted version of his usual threats. If I pointed the lunge whip at his quarters he swished his tail and did a silly little bunny hop(in previous times that would have been a full blown buck), so I took that as a small sign of progress. I kept the pressure up until he stopped his bunny hopping, and had him going round in a nice working trot, then changed the rein.

Now, Lukey loves trotting poles. No, honestly, his face lights up, and he will, if loose schooled, take himself over them of his own free will.
Today, however, he decided that they were there to get him......cue first bout of stupidity. He set off in trot ok, he's always more forward on the right rein, he'd rather rush than actually work as he finds this rein more difficult, so once the trot had settled, and he was listening, I bought him round to go over the trotting poles. Well, Lukey had other ideas, screeching to a stop, snorting and setting off in the other direction*idiot*.
So, got him back round on the right rein and presented him at them again......he went over them without even blinking, little sod!

Anyway, just to digress, again, for a moment, the whole point of his current regime is to rid him of his attitude, and stop him taking the piss, which he has been doing, royally. He is, or has been, incredibly lazy, and would buck/throw a tantrum if asked to go forwards.
Today, we carried on last weeks work, which was to let him know that this behaviour wasn't acceptable, and that it stopped, NOW! I kept on working him, asking him to go on, to open up the trot, then to come back, but keep the trot, rather than grind to a halt as he had been doing. Things were going so well that all I had to do was take my arm out to the side to cue him going forwards, and bring it back into my body to ask him to either walk, or shorten the trot strides. I didn't even need vocal cues at this point, and the whip was just passively there.
The ground today was pretty crap....our arena is grass, and add rain to winter mud and you have sticky, gluey surface, so all I wanted was him to go forwards in the walk and trot. I changed the rein again back to the left rein, and continued. He was listening so well, and seemed so willing to go forwards, that when I indicated that I wished him to open up the trot stride again, he offered me canter. That was good, great infact. It appeared that he was willingly offering to go on without me needing to get after him, so I allowed the canter to continue for a few more strides, then brought him back to the trot. Carried on working him, he again offered canter, all with a smile on his face, so I decided to change the rein back to the right, and have the last 5 mins just consolidating what we'd done in this session.
Pah! Double pah! Lukey had other ideas.
Sent him off in walk, asked for trot, got abit of a head shake and tail swish, but nothing serious, so ignored it and just kept up the pressure until he was happy to carry on of his own free will.
I opened my arm out again, as I had been doing all session, to ask him to take the trot more forwards, and bam! Explosion. It wasn't really a tantrum, more of a micky take........he set off at 100mh, totally taking me by surprise. Even though I had gloves on the sudden yank of the lunge line still hurt my hands, and in the end I just let go. I was worried that either I'd get pulled over, or he'd slip in the mud. So, off he went, bucking and farting, then scared himself silly as the line was following him, dimwit.
I caught him, and then made him work, and work, and work. Had he just behaved he'd have been back in his stable eating lunch, but all that his foolishness got him was a further 15 minutes hard labour.

He was tired by the end of it, and suitably contrite, as he bloody should have been, little sod. It had all been going so, so well. Why oh why did he have to go and spoil it?

I left him, in disgrace, in his field eating his lunch.



 Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

2 comments:

  1. How can that cute 4 month old foal frow up to cause so much trouble?

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  2. You know, I think when they gelded him they took away his brains too! lol

    ReplyDelete