Since I promised to exercise Lark for M, I did that first thing when I got to the barn today. Lunging Walker when he's hyper is like lunging a wild mustang, but lunging Lark is like lunging a tiger. She's super strong, very fast, and wildly unpredictable. When Walker freaks out on the lunge line, he usually pulls away from me. Oh, he will buck and flail around, but it's pretty predictable horse behaviour. Lark is kind of terrifying. She bucks and rears, but she cuts in a lot on the circle. I always have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that at any minute she is going to strike, leap out at me or trample me when she spooks at something. Granted, it was a pretty spooky day - cold weather, flurries flying, and the wind trying to take us to Oz - but still. I don't entirely trust her, but I'm sure that comes with time.
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| Hide and go seek Walker-style |
Anyway, I hopped on Walker shortly after without lunging him, and after about 2 minutes, I decided that was a very bad idea. I could feel a little Bruce in him, and he was curling his head up under himself at the walk as though at any minute, he was going to explode and buck me off. I wasn't in the mood to personally test out the softness of our new indoor arena footing, so I lunged him in the outdoor arena. He cantered/galloped for 25 minutes straight like a wild thing, and then he was back to being a little angel. I ended up only riding for about 20 minutes, but he was sweating bullets from his crazy run. He definitely got his exercise!
Sounds like this mare needs some more training. Houston used to be kind of wild on the lunge line but I never felt like he was going to hurt me. I think the round pen helped a lot because I could force him to work around me and he didn't really have anywhere to run or pull to.
ReplyDeleteDon't let this convince you that all warm bloods are crazy :) haha.
She definitely understands how to be lunged but she's hot whereas Walker is generally lazy. I just find that she's spooky and so when things scare her, she encroaches on my circle. She can be unpredictable
DeleteI agree with Hillary... Lark sounds plain disrespectful. There's only so much poor behaviour you can blame on the horse being hot, spooky, or an alpha mare, and coming in towards you while lunging is far beyond that, IMO. Perhaps she's better for her owner and just has your number as the person who may not get after her as harshly, or perhaps she's always like that. Either way, it makes me cringe.
ReplyDeleteI firmly believe that there is a difference between a true BIG spook and a little ol thing some horses use as an excuse. Sometimes horses get scared out of their mind and they just blindly RUN (you can see this in pasture, they might run through a buddy or a fence, for example) but most of the time when they "spook" they can still respect your space.
That being said, I'm a hard ass when it comes to manners. I love my horse dearly and spoil her rotten, but under no uncertain terms do I allow her to act in any way I see as disrespectful. A good example of this with a spook would be giving her a bath. She's only had a few and sometimes the hose is still scary. And sometimes, to get away from the scary hose, she may want to swing her bum in my direction. It isn't malicious and she isn't trying to kick me. She doesn't make contact with me. But that's irrelevant - an 1,100 lb animal swinging their butt in my direction isn't acceptable. So I remind her. And she swings her butt in the other direction. Eventually she'll get over her fear of the hose, but she will not pick up a bad habit or learn that it's okay to enter my personal bubble like that in the process.
Anyway. I'm on a tangent. Be careful with her; that kind of behaviour while lunging can be dangerous. Oh, and it's got nothing to do with her breeding. You can come visit Mex sometime and see what a well behaved warmblood is like. :)
Haha. Yeah. Every time she did something like that, it just resulted in her having to work more because I definitely got after her. I also didn't want her to think she could intimidate me because I wasn't her owner (who swears she doesn't misbehave on the lunge line). I just remain wary
DeleteI don't blame you! There's only so much you can do when the animal in question isn't yours, too. Stay safe. :)
DeleteDefinitely the plan!
DeleteGlad that you at least understand that what she is doing is dangerous. It is unfortunate when the horse in question is not your own and the owner seems to think that there is not a problem. Houston's ground manners have improved drastically in the 9.5 months that I have had him. He is stilly by no means perfect but for a while I opted for him to only be handled by the professionals in my barn or close friends when I was not handling him as I knew they for the most part would make him respect them.
DeleteHorses quickly learn that they can boss us around... And it is way harder to un-teach a learned behavior than it is to nip the bad behavior in the bud. But you know all of this! I think that mostly none of us want to see you get hurt! Sounds like this mare has some respect issues as Julie said as well and things like that can quickly escalate. (Been there done that!)
Good luck with her next time you work with her! :)
OOOO Christmas shop for me too! :)
ReplyDeleteHope that things with Lark get figured out... do you carry a whip when you lunge her? Sounds like she needs to respect you and your space...
I usually carry a lunge whip when I lunge Walker (mainly because he's lazy), but I didn't with Lark based on her owner's recommendations. She actually moves well with just the use of the end of the lunge line, but I've decided that next time the whip will probably save my butt (which is why I always carried it to begin with and also probably why I felt less safe). If all this has taught me anything, it is that it is difficult dealing with other people's horses. :S
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