(no subject)

[glenatron]

Today was the day for our yard Christmas ride when a few people off the yard and a couple of friends from elsewhere go out for a gentle hack together on the common.

We set out around half past eleven with a group of eight of us. Zorro and I went but Small and sleepsy_mouse didn't cos he's not really fit enough for how far we were going even just in walk. We all got on our well decorated ponies and set about marching off.


The decorated cob, complete with illuminated withers and short-lived hat.


Little Alfie horse is only a foal really, he just came up to the yard to see it and then went home again, but in the meantime he did spend quite a lot of time trying to nom the tasty green grass that had been wrapped around his friend Trooper's reins.

Now Zorro isn't accustomed to riding out with more than one or two horses, so a group of eight was new to him. I don't think he was that bothered about it but the politics of the situation were a little beyond him and he got grouched at by a little pony mare straight off. Then we had a brief headshakey anxious fit straight outside the gate too, which I solved by removing Zorro's Santa hat. I think he felt it's a bit early for that kind of thing.


Going down the lane. Notice grumpy pony mare on the right. She was grumpy today.

That resolved we paced on and he was pretty well behaved down the lane, he got a bit anxious when we stopped on the hill to let a car pass and one of the ponies had a wee. Apparently mysterious rivers suddenly appearing and flowing past him are not on the list of things that a cob should have to deal with. Crossing onto the common he was a bit worried by that dog a few weeks back gave us a few bumpy moments - apparently being in the middle of a big bunch of horses afforded him no reassurance in this scenario, which was interesting. I also noticed that when he starts to get anxious he starts grabbing at all the greenery we pass, which is a pretty clear displacement and maybe a useful thing to keep an eye on when we're out. Either way we had some dash-and-buck moments, which is pretty typical behaviour for an emotional Zorro, once we were past the part he finds difficult he calmed down quickly and was quite happy again.


We did a bit of trotting at one point which resulted in small kids' pony just wanting to go off at top speed. She was very excited indeed. After that we walked mostly and following a bit of silliness from one of the other horses with us Zorro and I found ourselves in typical position of tail-end charlie. That doesn't worry me too much because we're used to it and also we're usually slowest. We marched off along the marshy path that we've crossed in the past ( in fact that video is the same route in a different direction ) but after weeks of rain the water is much higher, pretty close to Zorro's belly and some of the smaller ponies got quite damp. Everyone marched on through though very happily. A few puddles later and Zorro could hear something in the distance behind us ( I think a helicopter, although he is very familiar with them so I'm not sure what that was all about, a different context I guess ) and spooking off.


After that he was skittish for a while, then a bit calmer for a mile or so and I ended up chatting to the couple of people on the ride I'd never met before- they were friends with the person organising and had come over with a trailer. They were really lovely, but one of them was on a horse who was pretty close to his bucking threshold for a lot of the time. Not bucking badly or anything, but quite full of it and a bit upwards about expressing it. The problem with this was that Zorro was far more ready to listen to this horse than to me and apparently the correct response was along the lines of: "You call that a buck? This is a buck!"

Turns out that with my western saddle I can stay on when he puts in some of the bigger ones that would have put me on the floor with my treeless so I guess that's a win, kind of. Also I can get him stopped between the first and second buck so he didn't really get to escalate it. It did make the last part of the ride around the trail a bit bumpy though and a bit edgy, which is hard work and not terribly enjoyable.

I guess one of our things to work on now is to fix that up. I need him to learn that he can take reassurance from me rather than having to always take his lead from other horses in the area. I don't know how easy or possible that will be to achieve but I've got some ideas in mind for things we might do.

Once we went back to the road things were pretty calm, but it was awesome when we turned the first corner on the lane to find sleepsy_mouse and Small pony coming down to meet us. Small has just got the all-clear from the vets but he has a lot of fitness to build back up so he wouldn't have been up to the whole ride, but joining us for a short bit was great for him and certainly helped him find some spring. A little further on we had to pile out of the road to let a car past and we found ourselves in front, at which point Small decided that must mean he was setting the pace and decided to depart briskly. sleepsy_mouse brought him up but he was very excited and felt the need to demonstrate his passage for a while.

All in all I'm really glad we went out, but it was kind of hectic and we find ourselves in need of yet more homework. Also I learned that Zorro does not like wearing a santa hat. All useful information, no doubt.

Comments

[fleefloodle.livejournal.com]

Baby pony!! And tinsel! Christmas ponies are very very awesome.

It is interesting that he didn't relax with more horses around, though if he doesn't spend much time with them it could just be the fact that they're strange horses that's getting him more worked up.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

At one point another horse went past in a different direction and he was very interested by that, almost as if this one horse he had never seen in his life before was more important than these seven he sort of knew a bit.