I spend 99% of my time riding by myself. Alpine knows
the ropes. You walk when mom says walk, trot when she says trot, and try
not to kill her if you decide to spook when going at high speeds. Above
all, make sure if you do dump mom, you don’t do it on the snake you are
spooking at. Or the stray Emu that lives in my forest.
Anyway, my neighbor wanted to go riding with me today.
I jumped on it…I miss having company. She has a 4 year old Arab
cross that is really very cute, and has a nice sensible attitude. So, due
to the neighbors horses age, we figured it would be a slow ride. We did
about 12 miles, mostly walking, a little bit of trotting, and had a nice
ride. Right up until the last mile home, when Alpine decided he hadn’t
been exercised enough, and he wanted to jig all the way home. Now,
jigging is absolutely not allowed….even if he does paso jig and it is
really quite comfortable. We walk home. Always. No
exceptions. So, it took us 30 minutes to walk less than a mile, because
every time Alpine went faster than a walk, he was asked to flex and stop.
He was bratty, obnoxious, and not fun to ride for that last mile. I am
proud of myself for NOT getting mad, and staying patient. I had to work
at it.
So, when we got home, walking, with a heart rate of 125, he
got a halter thrown on over his bridle and cross tied where he couldn’t rub,
eat, or dig holes. I went and cleaned the four dirty stalls and left him
there, fully saddled and bridled. The neighbor told me I was being cruel
to my horse, but I decided if he had to get home that bad, he wasn’t
going to have any fun. After about 20 minutes of this, he finally quit
being a brat, and stood quietly. So I untied him, and climbed back on him
and made him do ring work for 20 minutes or so. Then we came in, untacked,
didn’t get to eat any grass, and got turned out with the others.
Obviously, I need to get someone out here to ride with me
more often. Apparently having a friend makes Alpine’s brain
explode. Can you think of any other way to stop that kind of bratty
behavior? We already do ring work at least once a week, working on
dressage type stuff. He’s pretty good about it. He doesn’t
do that if we are out by ourselves. However, if I’m going to take him to
an endurance ride, this behavior needs to be nipped in the bud. First of
all, it’s no fun for either of us, and second, it’s not safe.
Thanks for any help with this!
Juli and the herd
Alpine (who needs to go faster on his 12 mile ride so that
he is too tired to jig)
Merlin (who thankfully didn’t see that last mile, and therefore
didn’t learn any bad habits today)
