A belated New Year start ...
Strange looking bit - explanation below!The first couple of months of the new year have been hectic to say the least - hence I have not had a chance to blather away to the blogosphere (is that what its called??) as much as I would like. I went away for Christmas and NY and then what with work being very busy, not to mention a number of sunny trips away (business of course) I have hardly had a chance to ride dear Sam let alone prattle on about him on this blog. But courtesy of reductions in my company’s travel budget, plus getting on top of much of the work I am now back on an even keel riding wise and shall hopefully be able to keep this thing more up to date.
So excuses aside back to the subject that this whole thing is supposed to be about i.e. Samuel Bojangles (my new name for him as I think it is cooler than Torpica :) Leaving aside the fact that I have not been able to ride very much and his turn out has been much reduced (due to all the rain) Sam’s current behaviour can be summed up in two words – bolshy teenager! Honestly, I do not know what has got into him – as you can see from the October photos below we were really starting to get somewhere in terms of general control and specifically how well he was going in the school. Since the new year all that seems to have gone out the window and I am back to being thrown around the school accompanied by much snorting, cantering sideways and generally rude rude rude behaviour. His other new trick is to grab the bit and then snatch his head down very quickly in order to unseat me and then he naffs off. Not very helpful when you are trying to get him to understand the finer details of shoulder in and, to be honest, just trotting at a sensible speed. So being me I am not taking any of this lying down and so I have begun my campaign plan to regain the slightly better behaved beasty I had up until the end of last year.
Step 1 in the campaign has been to get the physio out again just to make sure that he is completely sound. I am more than happy to spend my time in the school swearing at the little bugger but I just want to make sure I won’t land up feeling guilty about it if I then find out he isn’t 100% sound. Anyway, physio came out on Wednesday and he is all ok back wise although a little tight in the neck. To be honest though I think that is completely self afflicted from his other new habit which is to fling his head up and shake his head manically when he doesn’t want to do something …
So on to steps 2, 3 and 4. Step 2 is to get the dentist out as his teeth are due anyway. So that will make sure that none of this behaviour is linked to having sharp teeth causing him a problem. I don’t think this will be the case as he usually has good teeth but always better to check I suppose. So that brings us to steps 3 and 4 which are based on the assumption that he is just being a nuisance because he is not being ridden so much plus he isn’t out all the time so he can’t let off so much steam. Step 3 is to stop being so lazy on my side and thinking up feeble excuses why I can’t go for a ride when I know damn well that the real reason is that I can’t be bothered to drive all the way out to Windsor in the dark and the rain. I am now planning my visits to Sam each week to try and ride him at least 4 times and am putting them in my diary so that I feel that they are definite arrangements rather than something I can pull out of at the last minute. Life would be so much simpler if I actually lived anywhere near his bloody stables, oh well …
And so to step 4 which I am most excited about – and my instructor is bound to laugh at. I spent most of my lunch breaks this week on the H&H forum and other favourite sites looking for advice on bits for horses that are strong and bolshy and get up to the kind of antics he is at the moment. After much looking around and talking to various people I have come across a brand new bit just introduced in this country – the rather dubiously names Pee Wee bit! It is designed for horses that fight against the bit and aims to basically win the horse over by being kind and direct rather than jamming some horrible torture contraption in there. So I am sat at my desk at present waiting for the bit to turn up in the post so that hopefully I can try it out tomorrow in my lesson and find out what Sam and my instructor think of it. Will let you know how we get on.
So excuses aside back to the subject that this whole thing is supposed to be about i.e. Samuel Bojangles (my new name for him as I think it is cooler than Torpica :) Leaving aside the fact that I have not been able to ride very much and his turn out has been much reduced (due to all the rain) Sam’s current behaviour can be summed up in two words – bolshy teenager! Honestly, I do not know what has got into him – as you can see from the October photos below we were really starting to get somewhere in terms of general control and specifically how well he was going in the school. Since the new year all that seems to have gone out the window and I am back to being thrown around the school accompanied by much snorting, cantering sideways and generally rude rude rude behaviour. His other new trick is to grab the bit and then snatch his head down very quickly in order to unseat me and then he naffs off. Not very helpful when you are trying to get him to understand the finer details of shoulder in and, to be honest, just trotting at a sensible speed. So being me I am not taking any of this lying down and so I have begun my campaign plan to regain the slightly better behaved beasty I had up until the end of last year.
Step 1 in the campaign has been to get the physio out again just to make sure that he is completely sound. I am more than happy to spend my time in the school swearing at the little bugger but I just want to make sure I won’t land up feeling guilty about it if I then find out he isn’t 100% sound. Anyway, physio came out on Wednesday and he is all ok back wise although a little tight in the neck. To be honest though I think that is completely self afflicted from his other new habit which is to fling his head up and shake his head manically when he doesn’t want to do something …
So on to steps 2, 3 and 4. Step 2 is to get the dentist out as his teeth are due anyway. So that will make sure that none of this behaviour is linked to having sharp teeth causing him a problem. I don’t think this will be the case as he usually has good teeth but always better to check I suppose. So that brings us to steps 3 and 4 which are based on the assumption that he is just being a nuisance because he is not being ridden so much plus he isn’t out all the time so he can’t let off so much steam. Step 3 is to stop being so lazy on my side and thinking up feeble excuses why I can’t go for a ride when I know damn well that the real reason is that I can’t be bothered to drive all the way out to Windsor in the dark and the rain. I am now planning my visits to Sam each week to try and ride him at least 4 times and am putting them in my diary so that I feel that they are definite arrangements rather than something I can pull out of at the last minute. Life would be so much simpler if I actually lived anywhere near his bloody stables, oh well …
And so to step 4 which I am most excited about – and my instructor is bound to laugh at. I spent most of my lunch breaks this week on the H&H forum and other favourite sites looking for advice on bits for horses that are strong and bolshy and get up to the kind of antics he is at the moment. After much looking around and talking to various people I have come across a brand new bit just introduced in this country – the rather dubiously names Pee Wee bit! It is designed for horses that fight against the bit and aims to basically win the horse over by being kind and direct rather than jamming some horrible torture contraption in there. So I am sat at my desk at present waiting for the bit to turn up in the post so that hopefully I can try it out tomorrow in my lesson and find out what Sam and my instructor think of it. Will let you know how we get on.
posted by SMelville @ 2:38 pm
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