Wow was tonight a frustrating evening. It was nice out, I left work early, and I was going to take my calm, slow, plod-along horse, Axel, and ride in the arena. Led him into the barn and he was calm and willing. Crosstied him to groom and I think that's where things went down hill. After standing in the crossties for a while he started jerking his head around, getting really mad at the ropes. He would paw at the cement ground and just fling his head all the while putting pressure on himself since he had the rope halter on.
I tacked him up and took him into the arena to put on his bridle. I was going to tie him to the tie ring in there but he was kicking at the wall and trying to walk away and just not standing still. I let him do a couple circles in the arena on his own and then I attempted the bridle again. He took the bit but kept flinging his head not letting me buckle everything up. Standing still was not happening. Finally got him ready to go and lead him over to my make shift mounting block. The mounting process took probably 20 minutes. He would not stand still. Head flinging, gnawing on the bit, and being generally rude. We haven't really worked on ground manners too much because he's never really had any issues with it but it was evident now that he had zero concern for manners.
I finally was able to get on in a split second that he stood still. He wasn't nearly as awful under saddle, or I was able to handle it better. He had quite the walk, which is not something he ever has. He threw a few minor attempts at a buck or whatever. We worked on some figure eights and serpentines, I thought that would get him listening. He spent the whole time fighting with the bit. His body was cooperating but his head was not in the game in the least bit. When I finally got a good halt with no yanking at the reins I dismounted. My intention was to lunge him and somehow try and win the battle he started but there wasn't a lunge line around. I chased him a few times at liberty and he bolted around like an idiot.
He was pretty sweaty by the end of all this. Mostly I think he was sweaty from working himself up, not from anything physical that we did. I put the cooler on him and walked him around the arena for quite a while. He cooled off but was still wet. I thought he might roll so I took the cooler off but he just took off running again, so it was back on with the cooler and more walking. I finally decided to take the cooler off and put him in a stall to dry.
I grabbed Cody to bring him in and groom and give me something to do while Axel dried. He hadn't even been calling as far as I could tell. He was standing back from the gate and just hanging out. Cody was really good in the crossties. Concerned about what was going on around him, he still kept trying to turn around but he was just trying to see. The barn owner's brought in Amigo, so the two were facing each other in two sets of cross ties. Cody got pretty tall looking at the new horse but they both stood there and didn't squeal or anything. I turned him back out and went back to deal with Axel.
Still a wet mess and steaming I put the cooler back on yet again and tried to tie him again so I could try and scrub him dry. I scrubbed for a while but I think at this point the fleece was wet. He wasn't going to stand there any longer and I was tired of getting head butted. He was so angry, flinging his head around, he smacked his head into the part of the stall that sticks out for latching. I finally just took him outside and walked him for a while, he wasn't steaming any more but still wet. He wasn't going to dry if he had to stay inside and get himself worked up so I just took him back to the pasture. It was still 37F out so there wasn't much more I could do. I checked on him before I left and he wasn't shivering at all and dinner would be served sooner than later.
Ug. So frustrating dealing with rude ground manners. I'll go back and try again in the morning. I'll bring more blankets this time. This video is from Wednesday, just playing around with different websites to upload these to.
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