It's how you look at it

[carthorse]

Weather was ok today so I brought Luka, who was chilled for him, out of his stable and was getting him ready for a ride. All was good until one of the teenagers at the yard started having the sort of tantrum you expect from a toddler - shouting, screaming and everything short of throwing herself on the floor and drumming her heels on the ground. Luka was very upset by it, and even when she stopped seemed unable to calm down. I nearly decided not to ride, particularly when the simple act of getting tack on was an ordeal, but decided to see how it went and if needs be I could get off at any point. Asked a friend to stand b his head with treats while I got on, but strict orders not to hold him or even move a hand towards the rein, it took a couple of attempts but once I was n he felt better than I thought.

We only did a short route and to begin with he was very anxious, but holding it together very well even when a horse buzzed the hedge next to the road. Extremely forward, but there are worse things he could do! Lots of trotting, and glancing in the windows I would say that while we held the road trot rhythm his stride length means that's still quite a speed, but he was honest enough to go past everything with no silliness or attempts to clear off.

I have to say I was very pleased with him because things could easily have gone wrong with him that anxious. He's grown up a lot. The how you look at it is also an issue though, it would have been very easy to have focused on how he lit up and was flying around when tied up and seemed unable to settle down. It was also very tempting to get a hold of him once on rather than trust him and encourage him on, but I'm absolutely sure that would have tipped him over the edge from forward to exploding. I saw a lot of positives, someone else said what a shame he was reverting back to old behaviour and he'll probably never be right - makes me wonder what people expect when he actually held it together!

 

[newforest]

It is how we perceive what's going on based on sight and feel for sure.
It's not often that mine is lit up. On those days it usually coincides with awful foul weather that I wouldn't need to be concerning myself with getting on anyway.
I do have the in season distracted grumpy grouch go away days.

When we moved here she didn't like the screaming and shouting from the zip wires a few fields away.
She doesn't like the farmer shouting instructions to the sheep dog. So I have come to conclusion she just doesn't like us making a lot of noise.

Though she wasn't sure which way to run when the ship sounded it's horn either one day.
It made me jump as well and we are both fine with that new noise

Horses do mature, it's easy to forget sometimes how much work goes into a young horse besides the initial backing of them isn't it.

 

[carthorse]

@newforest I've had two from 2 year olds before and I have to say that was easier than have to unpick the mess that had been made of Luka's head. I spoke to his breeder so I know he's always been a very sensitive horse which will never change, but at least now he trusts and will try as hard as he can, but that trust took some time to build - mind you I think the horse that used to do as he was told because he was scared of the rider wouldn't have been rideable today.

 

[PePo]

What a good boy he was!

It's the re-learning to trust people process I love most with working with less than straight forward horses or those with a past.

I know P tries as hard as he can to give what I want, even if he finds it hard or challenging. It might not look the same as other horse's best but we know so that's all that matters.