Ride From Hell

Posted by Thathorse Admin on 20 Apr, 2010 Posted in Horse Health, Riding Tutorials, The Rider

Ride From Hell

I've got to tell you about a scary experience I had the other day.  I decided to go out and hit the trail with my big boy Absoluut - I just wanted to get out alone and hear the birds, that's right, some me time!
 
So we headed into the forest. Absoluut has been ridden out a fair bit but usually with a friend, so he was tense from the start but ok...however the further into the ride the more upset he got. First there were wild goats hidden amongst the trees, which we couldn't really see most of the time and by the time we got to where they were, they'd race off. This really started to fry his brain. We arrived at a steep downhill slope and as he is still growing I got off to walk him. Normally he would wander along but not that day and as we went along he became worse and worse - looking behind himself constantly. About 500 metres from the bottom of the hill a mountain biker came flying around the corner with squealing brakes - well as you can imagine, Absoluut's world collapsed and he bolted with his reins around his legs.  I tried my best to hold him but I fell over in a ditch. 
 
I was terrified.  This horse is the horse of my dreams and here he is blind bolting down a steep hill with a gate at the bottom of it, with little chance or sense to stop. Thankfully he didn't try to take the fence out and he did stop. My reins broke and I'd got the worst blistered toes running down that hill. By the time we walked home, I was bawling. 
 
We were going away on a holiday that following



week and I was going to give Absoluut a break but after this ride I decided to send him off to Boot Camp. We have an excellent traditional horseman about an hour away to I called him to see if I could drop Absoluut off for 10 days big riding. Well he took him everywhere - along the roads, along to the beach and up and down the sand dunes, and over farms. When I came to pick Absoluut up it was a rubbish day, but he was enjoying his last 2 hour ride out along the road.  I followed along in my car. It's so interesting watching someone else ride your horse. I usually wander along lost in my thoughts when I ride, but man oh man, boot camp was boot camp for Absoluut.  He was ridden purposefully and strongly forward straight up to or passing really closely to anything that caught his eye. Plastic rubbish bins on the side of the road were opened and slammed shut. Ditches were ridden into and along, stopped in and stepped out.
 
This was all stuff I did as kid, but where has it gone? It's essential that our horses can go out and look at scary things and not try to commit suicide (with us as clinging pillion passengers!). So that is my mission - do more stuff, be more assertive, not be so soft and get on with it! I will let you know how I get on!!

 

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7 Comments

OH wow! My Stally Just my Irish Luck(Lucky) and I were out riding and we had a similar scare. But, he shied of a cactus, got the cactus in his foreleg, AND, dented up his BRAND NEW TRAILOR! Oh well, I guess when I bought a horse, I should have set aside ALOT of extra money! :)
Rayny(prounced Rainy, but my parents wanted me to have a unusual name)

By Rayny, 01 May 2010

I read your little story about Absolut and thought that you would enjoy a copy of my book Zen Connection with Horses. It is seriously life changing when it comes to confidence of the horse and rider. It comes as an ebook and audio lesson CD, also a printed version. Perhaps you could do a review for your mag. Just let me know if you are interested.
cheers, jenny

By Jenny, 26 Apr 2010

Hi Kate,
Yes interesting article I always tell my students a bold rider makes a bold horse, we must take them everywhere, when I start my youngsters that is exactly what I do, a couple of days in the round yard then out on the trail, over hills, ditches water ect, they learn to trust you this way.

By Mandy, 26 Apr 2010

love it Kate! and oh so true!

Something I had to stop and think about when a got a flight driven TB after having had 7 yrs off riding... in the end I stopped and thought, how come all the horses at Pony Club when I was a kid would NOT behave like he is?! Because as kids we simply didn't let them! As adults we somehow lose the confidence to deal with things, kids "just know" that sort of behaviour isn't allowed and therefore won't happen and they get it right!

All we really have to do is alter our own mental attitude don't we.... tough work at times for an adult shaped by years and years of 'life' LOL.

Good on you for sorting it and damn glad your boy is OK! (One of mine is STILL broken 6 mths after running THRU a gate bending it like a banana with his leg thru the reins)

Regards
Kelley-Anne

By Kelley-Anne, 26 Apr 2010

Hi Cat,
Email me and I will give you the contact details - I took Absoluut back to Battlehill this week and just played. I took the time to focus on him getting things right rather than getting to a point and then going home again. The improvement was brilliant! I'm so excited.

Look forward to chatting to you,

Kate Hinton
You can get me via the contact us button; bottom left of the page cheers,

By Kate Hinton, 23 Apr 2010

Hi
Can you please tell me which/where the "Boot Camp" is. I have a similar problem with my gelding.
Thanks

By CAT, 23 Apr 2010

brave riders make brave horses !!!

By dee, 22 Apr 2010

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