joining AA - alfalfaohlics anonymous

I stopped Seekers alfalfa a week ago hoping maybe it was the cause of some of his idiocy and hyper reactiveness. I was never a believer that alfalfa affected them mentally, but now I am. Today I hand walked him up the street as usual with Chris and Socks and he was a different horse. much more the sweet horse I thought I bought. I had on his snaffle and saddle and he never reared, he did swing his head and do a little hop maybe twice at the beginning and that was it. I did smack him once when he started being stupid which surprised him. he walked along the whole way, not nearly as nervous. I was even able to trot beside him for a few steps with my arm over his back without him expolding. He is still very energetic and "eager" but didn't have any tantrums or loose his mind at all. so he has a stay of execution. He is out with socks now and after biting him in the butt 100 times and socks giving him one good kick they are fine. He just has to learn to control his teeth but I think that will come with age and the complete absence of testosterone. last weekend socks was beside us and seeqret was trying to bite him, looked like a shark going for chris's leg. Lots of thanks to Chris (and socks) for putting up with us....
socks was grumpy while being tacked up but was perfect once chris got on. he is probably so bored with our walks up the street. hopefully some day we will actually go down a trail and maybe even TROT. you gotta dream. bad weather tomorrow so we won't be able to get out. oh and chris held him while I sat on him in the barn when we got back. he was fine. I am getting my hopes up again that I will be able to handle him as long as I take it slowly.

2 steps back

my update on last weekend's ride. chris did a nice job story telling, I want to post my feeling so I can look back and remember. we headed down linden again to get to the snowmobile trails and ride "uphill" where I feel safer. after reading alot on the internet about controlling head tossing that can escalate to rearing I ordered a German Martingale and decided to try it out. Seeqret was very hyper on the walk down the street, he almost kicked a car (almost wish he did the idiots) pranced sideways the whole way, was biting and hopping up. once we got into the woods I got on after a couple of circles and he did really well. went down a steep hill and he was having a hard time, almost sitting down, unhappy but did it. I got off and led him past the spot where he had inadvertently jumped in the pond the weekend before. I got back on and we were speed walking along and he suddenly did is head toss and reared. he got over it pretty quickly, then did it again and this time went up very high. I wasn't prepared and my gloves were slipping on the reins and I could feel myself holding onto the reins but couldn't stop. then he proceeded to do a few crow hop rears, it felt very bad like a bronco. as he was going up for maybe the 3rd time I said "oh crap!" and I almost fell off. he stopped and I rode him about a mile out to Mt Pisquah without any more major issues. I realize in hindsight that the german martingale made him feel trapped by pulling his head in so much and when he was nervous and reared and my holding on really exacerbated the issue so he went higher and harder. I have decided to step back and start over with the basics. I need to gain his confidence and respect. so will do more in hand walking and just get to know each other. then will start him under saddle in the ring once the footing is better. I have rethought my goals and at this point I hope just to be able to ride him this summer without being terrified that he is going to flip over backwards on me. if all goes well, maybe even a dressage show:). on a good note, he was very good turned out with Zak. no more stallion stuff. we will get there eventually! right now I am thinking that I made a big mistake buying him. I hope to look back on this note and laugh because he has turned into the horse of my dreams.....

Seeqret's secrets.....and other stuff.....

Ok, so, Carolyn and I trekked out last weekend again. Once again, the cars on the road were unbelievable....traffic in Berlin WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!? Anywho, Seek was pumped as usual. He's much better in the woods. Carolyn tried the German martingale on him this time. We've come to the conclusion that when he gets scared or spooked, he gets.....shall we say...um, silly. Totally not a malicious boy, just a bit on the dramatic side. He was a bit on the naughty side for the ride but Carolyn is returning to her Mad Hacker roots and did very well with him. It also helped that Socks was better behaved and wasn't channeling Zak-isms like he did last week. UGH!
Sunday afternoon we also went out. Carolyn tried a bit on Seek this time and decided to take a step back with him. He was a different horse! He was pretty quiet and seemed to understand what she was asking of him turning wise and stopping wise. Also, just had the standing martingale on. He didn't feel as trapped. We only walked down the street with the boys. They were good and only spooked (as we did as well) when the Golden Doodley dog down the road came barking and growling at us. Other than that....not a bad outing.
At home, we decided that maybe Seek could use a friend again. Perhaps, he needs to learn to be a horse? Zak to the rescue again.....this time, he meant business. The first time Seek and Zak went out, Seeker kept aggravating Zak and of course, Zak took it. Not this time! Zak was all about not being disturbed from his hay. Most of the kicks he swatted at Seeker were done without him even taking his head up from his hay! Ha ha ha! That's my talented boy! Who knew that Zak would tell someone off? It must be the fact that he's turned into a grumpy old coot who doesn't want to deal with damn kids anymore. Ha ha ha! So, hopefully, we're still going in a forward direction with these beasties. I've been having a blast riding Socks. He's such a good boy and I hope to get some lessons under my belt and get back into that show ring again...we'll see......

Swimming in February?

Today was a beautiful 40º day and the snowmobiles had made some good footing in the woods so Chris and I ventured out on our (not so) trusty steeds. Seeker was super pumped up, wanted to just explode as I led him about a mile down to the trails. he was very naughty bouncing around, spooking, prancing, biting and hopping. Socks was the opposite and thought he'd rather just hang out in the pasture today. Once we got to the trail, socks decided that yes, he really did want to be out and run through the woods. Seek was very hard to lead in the snow and I was just drenched with sweat walking with him. at one point we were right beside horse shoe pond, I was still leading him, he was not listening and he jumped in front of me and went right into the pond! he couldn't tell it was water/ice as it was covered in snow, but he went in to his hips, and leapt back out. the water smelled like a sewer for some reason, it was disgusting. he seemed ok, but we were both covered in black stinking chuncky water. after that he actually settled down some. I was able to get on him after a little tight circling and he scooted up the main trail, went up the ledge trail with socks behind us sounding like a freight train. seeker did very very well. he did throw his head and bounce around a bit, but not as bad as last time. he wanted to run and I let him jog just a bit. he would walk so nicely then suddenly have a little tantrum but not bad at all. I rode all the way to Mt pisquah's parking area, our longest ride so far! a think almost a whole mile and a half :). chris did a really good job keeping Socks from running us over, THANK-YOU! 95.5 miles to go...