I seriously doubt if there is any problems with neck or back. I also
suspect it may be for entertainment value. I have one that on a single
track through the deepest, darkest, scariest woods, goes along
blasting away without ever a thought of a spook. However, put him on a
wide two track trail and he will "shuck and jive" from side to side
down the trail shying from everything. He's 20 - been doing it since we
got him at 4 - probably will do it on his last ride before he crooks.
I have not idea what it is, boredom, opinion - I doubt it is fear but
maybe he is not comfortable in open spaces. I do not know. I have found
after taking a soil sample if I come back to the truck, take off his
tack, get out my 45, show it to him, hold it to his head and explain to
him I will be carrying it the next time we ride and if I come off - he
will be buried on the trail at that spot (just kidding her folks -
don't have a 45 it's really a 40 cal
;-) ). It seems to help - at least for the next ride or
two ;-) .
In reality I think he is really a sleeper member of the Jihad and I am
the target. He is the only Arab I have ridden extensively - does 13
years count - and he will be the last.
Truman
Barbara McCrary wrote:
Your discourse here does not represent
what my horse does. Mine spooks only in safe situations (safe for him)
and sometimes there is nothing there at all. I truly believe he does
it for entertainment value. He had training over a woven blue tarp in
an arena, and he learned to walk carefully over it. On the outside, if
a blue tarp is sitting out in plain sight, it's a big horse-eater.
As for your saying you can ignore it and
ride through it, you must be fairly young, athletic, and have great
balance. At 76, I am none of those, but I care deeply enough for this
horse to try riding him again. I can avoid the spooks if I walk him
only. He only spooks when I am trotting him along an open road or in a
field.
Whether there is a problem with his spine,
neck, or wherever, I have yet to find out.
Barbara
-- “I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in
pseudoscience
“I maintain there is much more wonder in science
than in
pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any
meaning,
science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one,
of
being true.” Carl Sagan
