So, I'm sure you're all aware that the weather has been pretty darn cold in these parts. This means that we've been stuck with a lot of time off--or short walking mini trail rides. Normally Mort is a fairly easy guy to handle with some time off. He may not always want to come right back to work, but he is usually is steady enough. Last night was a bit of a different story.
It started out innocently enough; he was fine for grooming and tacking. My plan was to hop on bareback and stretch his legs. The ground was still frozen, so doing more than a walk was not in the cards. Nobody told Mort that.
I got on and we started with a baby rear and the inability to stand still. I told him to march forward and he was jiggy, but started out OK. After a few minutes of me trying to get him to relax via lateral work he did another baby rear. He was constantly asking to go, go, go and I wasn't letting him (because rock solid ground and all that). A few more minutes of trying to relax he tried bucking instead of rearing. I decided quickly after, that I would walk until he stopped jigging and jump off. I tend to operate under the mindset that it's better for me to get off than to be gotten off--especially while bareback with no one else at the barn.
I didn't want Mort to end there so I tried to do some hand walking. I figured it would get some of the edge off physically and mentally. After a while--and a few more rearing episodes--I wasn't as confident. He kept playing a "fun" game of trying to bite the reins as we walked. One of the times he got my thumb. I was frustrated and he was nowhere near ready to relax or settle, so we called it quits soon after that.
The entire time he never meant to do anything in a mean or aggressive way. Everything he did was just because he had so much excessive energy and nothing to do with it. I think the evening would have gone a lot differently if we had been able to do more than walk. TBs do well with that forward, productive stuff and all that.
Anyway, he's on a higher energy food at the new barn that we are now switching him off of. It was supposed to be super easy on his tummy, but clearly not a great fit otherwise. We'll see how the new food does. I'm sure it wouldn't have been as dramatic if we'd been able to ride regularly but maybe catching it early is better. Who knows.
Tonight the ground was much better! The majority of the arena was good to w/t/c. There were only a couple of really big puddles that we had to avoid. I started with lunging with his shenanigans last night. He was definitely still amped and enjoying the warmer weather. We had several moments of porpoising and some minor explosions, but he did his best to stay with me on the circle. After more than a few circles he was finally relaxing and stretching down and being a good boy.
I hopped on for a super short ride. We did a few figure eight trot circles and one canter transition each direction. He was a complete gentleman and we did some good long-rein walking to cool him down. Poor guy was just too hot to know what to do with himself before he got some exercise. Hopefully with the change in food and the promising weather forecast we'll be back on track.
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