05/31/2023
No pictures for this post, but some thoughts on the ride I decided Amigo needed on Saturday morning.
While in my ride with my sister and Pep on Friday Amigo was showing some signs of being seriously buddy sour. he tried throwing me twice as soon as I got on and was “behind the leg” and cranky about being asked to leave Pep multiple times on our ride. I even got off and did some ground work once because he straight planted his feet and refused to move which is a HUGE no-no. Remember, this horse does not have a “whoa” problem - he has a “go” problem which resulted in him learning how to use dangerous behaviors (bucking/rearing/running backward/spooking/switching his tail/etc.)
So for our ride on Saturday I wanted to work on that “go” button - with Pep in sight. As SOON as I got on he tried hu***ng up and I got off and put.him.to.work. He tried running backward/leaping/turning away and dragging me for about a minute before he remembered that forward was the answer. We worked on his willingness to go forward (without any tail switching, ear pinning, etc.) for about 5 minutes before I got back on.
When I got back on I immediately put him to trot and canter work. He got about 1/2 second to GO FORWARD. He was still switching his tail - telling me his brain was still saying “no”.
My sister joined in a few minutes later. She grabbed my horsemanship flag from my trailer and we started flagging him. I would put my leg on lightly and then my sister would follow up with the flag. This gave Amigo an external consequence for not going when I told him too - it made me the good guy who wanted to get him out of the incoming “trouble”.
After about 15 minutes my sister hopped on and we repeated the exercise. I think this was a good idea because it takes a village to train a horse just like it takes a village to raise a child. The more humans who hold him accountable the better.
All in all we rode Amigo for about an hour. We worked on walk-trot transitions, trot-canter transitions, halt-trot transitions, and shoulder yield-trot transitions. At multiple points he spooked at various objects outside our arena that he has seen MANY times over the last six months. He was not allowed to raise his head and invert at these obstacles. This may be an unpopular opinion but I didn’t let him look at the items he was spooking at - I am 90% certain he was looking to gain control of the situation by inverting and refusing to go forward. By the time Krysten and I were done with him he was sweaty, tired, and stood at my trailer for another hour or so before I untacked him.
This horse tends to have periods where he does really well followed by shorter periods where he reverts back to prior behaviors. In my experience this is fairly normal but pronounced in Amigo. he is easily the most challenging horse I have ever worked with. Each time I have pushed him through these tough spots he has gotten significantly better, confident, and calm, which tells me I am working him in the right directions.
Obviously we do lots of relaxation work - I have been more thorough in this horse’s training than any other I have worked. His behavioral challenges necessitated it. So I am confident he was not being asked to do anything he wasn’t prepared for.
I’ll probably just do groundwork on him the next several days, and take him to the Angel’s nest, our covered arena, at the end of the week. It’s a busy week for work so it’s best I go that route as it takes more time to tack up and untack.
Amigo will tell me if I made the right decisions for him.
You got his Amigo!!
