Here
We Go Again
I
have spent a lot of time bragging about how wonderful a horse Dante is and how
perfect he is for Ellen. All of it is
true, except for this time of year.
It
seems that when Dante doesn’t get ridden outside for a while, he turns to the
darkside. He gets so bad that it is a
challenge to even lead him outside. consequently,
Ellen just relies on the inside arena to exercise him. He is fine in there. Where some horses get hyper in very cold
weather, Dante is the same consistent Dante he always is when he is inside the
4 walls of the arena.
It
would help if he could be turned loose to play outside on a regular basis in
the winter, but we battle ice so much—including in the turnout area this time
of year. We are reluctant to use it for
turnout when it is frozen with deep divots—everywhere—and sections that are all
ice. Maybe we seem overly cautious, but
we personally know of 2 people whose horses had to be put down from breaking
their legs in conditions like that. If
we get loads of snow, it would be fine for turnout—but this hasn’t been a year
with a lot of snow. We do turn the boys
out to play in the indoor arena, quite often.
Cole will run around like a nut.
Dante—not so much. He doesn’t see
the point.
Our other
horses would get excited when they haven’t been outside much, but not like Dante. I couldn’t trail ride Cruiser in the winter
until he was 6 years old. He would get
so would up, riding him was like riding a stick of dynamite. But as he got older, he would at least walk
on a loose rein like a gentleman when we got outside. Trotting was crazy for at least a month, but
walking was fine. Ranger was similar,
but not as extreme as Cruiser. Mingo—he was
great. Since he was such a quiet horse
to begin with, in the spring he would liven up and become the horse I always
wanted him to be.
Starry
has never been a problem. Cole was a
little difficult the first spring I had him, but he has never been pretty good,
since. When the weather locks us in for
a while, he isn’t much different when I get him back out than he is in the
summer—and he is a very, very spirited horse.
Cole should be our problem horse; not Dante. Dante is a quiet horse—but if he is stuck
inside for a week or two, we are stuck with re-familiarizing him with the great
outdoors. At his age, (9), you would
think he would be done with this.
Keep in
mind, Dante broke Ellen’s ankle when she was leading him. She gets very nervous if he misbehaves while
she leads him. This puts the responsibility
on me.
I was
hoping that this year, due to maturity, he may be different. A few weeks ago, we had some mild weather,
and Ellen rode him in the arena. When
she was done, she gave him to me to take outside. We weren’t 10 feet out the door when he got
excited and started bouncing around like a colt. We quit after a few minutes. Just as I was afraid of, he wasn’t going to
be any different this year.
We
then had some cold weather, so we gave up for a while. When it got warmer, Ellen started his outside
therapy. After his rides, she would
bring him outside and stand him in one place—clicking for good behavior.
Last weekend
was really nice, and since it is getting closer to spring, it seemed like it
was time to get serious about re-acclimating him to the great outdoors.
Friday
evening, I had Kevin chase him around in the indoor arena. He actually did a lot of running and playing
for a change. The next day, Ellen rode
him in the arena—mostly trotting. With
any of our other horses, this would have set us up for success.
When she
was done with her ride, she rode out the arena and to the loop in the back of
the property. I was right there by her
side. She got all the way to the
farthest point of the barn and dismounted—handing the reins to me. She has a halter bridle, so I clipped the
reins on the halter part so I could lead him around.
He
started out good. As we continued
walking around the loop, I told her that I knew what would happen when we made
it around the corner to start the second loop.
I have been through this before with Dante. I figured he would throw a temper tantrum
when I ask him to go around the loop again.
Now this
is the horse that Ellen rode on the loop all fall—even into December—with not a
problem. There is no reason for temper tantrums. Why does this happen with him?
I
hoped that if I acted like he would be a perfect gentleman, he would pick it up
my demeanor and actually do just that. It
didn’t help. We made it around the
corner, and he threw a temper tantrum.
He barged forward, tried to turn around, stomped his front feet and was generally—well—awful. I thought, “Here we go, again.” When he tried to turn towards home, I just
circled him back the way I wanted to go and worked with him to settle
down. By the time we got to the next
corner, he was fine. He gave up and was
going to do another loop.
Of course,
he was good all the way around—until we got to tantrum corner. The second time, he threw a temper tantrum,
but it was much smaller. He was back to
normal by the next corner and all the way around.
I decided
to do one more lap. Ellen was going to
click him and give him—not a carrot, but a peppermint if he was good. He didn’t immediately throw a tantrum, but he
was pushy and rude, so he didn’t get the peppermint. A little way further, there was a big gust of
wind that blew at the arena gate and electric wire that startled him. He gave a big spook and then went into a
tantrum. Cole and Ranger have both
spooked at that in the past, so we couldn’t hold it against him, but he wouldn’t
settle down. I just couldn’t get him to
walk quietly. Then, Ellen realized that
it was the construction at the barn that was getting to him. They started using a nail gun. He was jumping each time. Once we realized what was going on, we
decided it was time to quit. He was
awful leading back to the barn, too.
Dante
has a pattern with his behavior. If he
followed his pattern, I figured we would have one very bad day on the loop, and
the next day will be significantly better.
If we could do a third consecutive day, on that day, he would be
perfect.
The next
day, Ellen rode him in the indoor arena, again.
Since we had had a thaw, we then decided to turn him loose in the
outdoor arena to roll and play. Then, we
would take the big, sloppy mess, formerly known as Dante, for a walk on the
loop.
Thanks
to the run, he skipped a day in his pattern of behavior. He was perfect on the second day. He got plenty of praise and clicks with
treats—even peppermints on tantrum corner.
We were so glad to have our old Dante back.
The big
question—with a week between walks, would he revert to the Dante of the
Darkside?
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