Saturday, October 18, 2008

Friday's Trail Ride

Friday was warm enough that I went on a trail ride with my Mom on Stoli and Andre on Vinny. Werther was pretty good for me to catch even though I went out to the barn earlier than usual. T.J. was hysterical in the paddock. T.J. is a huge moose of a warmblood and walked up to me almost immediately after I went into to the paddock, while Werther was studiously ignoring me. I gave T.J. a quick pat and then shooed him away so I could go about the business of catching Werther. T.J. decides to follow me, but because I shooed him away, all 1,700 pounds of him tries to creep behind me by following me a couple paces away. It is really funny to have a horse try to sneak up on you when they are that big. Werther was fine to catch, but then he was a pill when he got in the stall. Not many horses we inside so Werther got very worked up, walking in circles, whinnying, and even rearing a couple times to look over the top of his stall. I was not very pleased with this behavior, so I used a lead shank to make sure Werther would stand while I took off his blanket. Werther was fidgety in the cross ties but did not do anything really bad. When we got outside and I got on Werther he was still a little worked up when I started walking him, but once he realized he was going with Stoli and Vinny he settled down. Werther was great on the trail, we did walk trot work. After we were done I went into the ring by walking up the bank jump to work on my canter transitions, and Werther picked up the right lead on the first attempt which I was really happy with, but then when I changed direction he was reluctant to pick up the left lead. I did more canter transitions with him and he was excellent after that, even picking up the left lead on the straight line. After I was done I turned on the heat lamps in the wash stall and gave him a bath. When I put Werther back in his stall I took Wesley out and groomed him, Werther became anxious again without a horse directly next to him and not very many horses in the barn. I think park of the issue is the barn that he used to live at was at the Colorado Horse Park, where he was constantly surrounded by other horses. Does anyone have any advice as to how to reduce his anxiety on those occasions when I bring in him in early without having to bring in another horse to babysit? 

1 comment:

Heather said...

Perhaps you could toss him a flake of hay to snack on. That could help him relax while he waits his turn for grooming, riding, or attention.