No Treats For You!

Alex's vision of himself today

It's been one of those nights... the ones where you get done working your horse and you think to yourself "what a friggin psycho!"

I went straight from work to the barn and was ready to get back to work.  Alex stood to be groomed and tacked giving no signals that he was in a wild mood.  Took him out to lunge, a few bounces and kicks but nothing out of the ordinary.  Right about the time I removed the lunging equipment to climb in the saddle, the temperature dropped about 5+ degrees, it got windy and a few of the horses in paddocks across the farm started calling back and forth.  Since it was still dry and Alex seemed unimpressed, I climbed into the saddle to do a little flat work.  I was wearing spurs for the first time, so on my guard to be gentle.  Not one minute into our ride and Alex commenced shaking his head, bucking and leaping around like he hadn't been worked in a week.  Usually the bucking and jumping around doesn't bother me too much, and I'm willing to cowgirl it out a bit, but I was very worried I'd catch him with my spurs if he got me too off balance.  Considering he's never been ridden in spurs, I didn't want that to be his first experience.

I decided I'd get off and put him back on the lunge until he and the wind settled down.  As soon as we started working again, he decided it was time to tear around at the gallop like he was being chased by the boogie man for like 20 minutes complete with bucking and snorting (made even better by someone driving by on a lawn tractor) even half-way falling down at one point.  When I thought he looked "done," I changed directions where he tore around a little more before finally settling down. Keep in mind that he's been lunged for nearly an hour at this point... Determined that he would be ridden, I removed all the lunging equipment and climbed back in the saddle.  About a ten strides away from the mounting block and Alex throws another series of bucks, leaps and snorts..... WTF?!  Again, I'm worried about the spurs, but have made up my mind that he WILL trot around this arena before we go in to the barn (it's actually raining a bit now).  Another series of fireworks later, I make him trot another couple strides and finally dismount to get the loaner saddle out of the rain.  I was so mad that I couldn't properly deal with the situation, but the weather wasn't cooperating.

Turns out it was good that I went in, because it started to thunder pretty loudly (Alex would have dumped me for sure if that had started while I was in the saddle), but I still wish I could have dealt with him.

So Alex has a new nickname... Captain Psycho!

You know I'm disappointed in my horse's behavior when he gets no treats at all... I don't think that's ever happened...yeah, it was one of those nights.

Tomorrow he could be a total saint... we'll see :-)