Anecdote

Anecdote

So, for my anecdote I immediately thought of writing about my most recent experience riding Tank. Yeah..Here we go...

*and the rambling starts.......now!*

It was a few days ago, and at that point I had ridden him a couple of times around our field and he had done pretty well. He is pretty sensitive and responsive, so you have to be light with your cues, which is pretty nice for me. That means that, for example, when I want him to walk forward I use my legs or voice, or sometimes the reins, as cues. And sometimes you have to make it obvious that you are asking something of a horse; not by being mean or anything, just making it more clear. But with Tank, all I have to do is lightly squeeze with my legs or cluck or sometimes just pick up my reins like I'm wanting to go somewhere and he listens. So that's really nice...

Back to my story, that morning I retrieved him from the pen and groomed him, and then lunged him a bit. He was still having troubles with lunging at that time, like he did not quite understand what I was asking of him and also that he was just not wanting to listen, but now he is definitely better at it. All I had to do was be more tough with him one day and let him know that I was in charge, as there is a hierarchy not only within the horses but with the humans too. And if the human is not viewed by the horse as the leader, issues will arise. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not saying that one should go beat on their horse until they're submissive. I'm saying that they should kindly yet firmly show that they're the leader by simply not letting their horse boss them around, as that is what the leader does. So, one day I had to really push him to go forward by swinging the end of the lunge line around until he understood what I was asking him to do.

Anyways, after I lunged him around a little, I tacked him up and hopped on. And up towards our house and the pen, he was being really good and listening. But as soon as I asked him to walk towards the field, he started to be a butthead about it and not really listen, as he is kind of barn sour so he doesn't want to leave what he considers his home. But I persisted and he finally started walking in the field, albeit reluctantly. After the second time walking a circle around the field and him continuing to not want to listen, he finally decided to let his frustrations out about not getting his way by.... bucking. Well, trying to.

Yay..... 

But before he actually started bucking, I could feel that he was about to, so I turned his head so he couldn't full on buck (he still managed to a bit, though). And, let me tell you, he was not happy about this either. Eventually, after unsuccessfully trying to calm him down by talking to him and petting him, I decided that it was getting to be too dangerous so I bailed. I had to first make sure that my feet were out of the stirrups, and that his head was still turned so I could get off in time before he ran off, and in one extremely graceful maneuver I jumped off him. And, you know, fell on my butt after somehow ripping my shirt. Fun times.

But as they say, if a horse bucks you off (or, in this case, makes you bail off in order to not get bucked off), you get back on. So, after chasing him and finally getting a hold of him (and retrieving my hat that fell off sometime beforehand), I climbed back on him. And he still was not a happy horse and wanted to go back to his home, but I didn't let him get his way and rode him around the field once more until I felt that he was calmer and listening better. Then I took him back and rinsed him off with the hose, and he was way calmer and tired out. So... yeah. Hopefully that made some sort of sense.