Horsenip stikes again!

[alobear]

I don't know what it is about me that turns usually slow horses into raving lunatics, but it struck again today. I was on Joker - and last time we saw him, weaselbitch could barely get him to move. With me, he wouldn't stand still. He's the kind of horse who'll throw his head back when you pull on the reins, and it's always a bit disconcerting to do that and find there's nothing at the other end. However, I can find riding in the woods a bit boring on occasion, so riding a horse who feels like he's ready to lift off at any moment always makes things more interesting.

Joker's trot was really weird. As I rose, it felt as if the stirrups were stretching away from my feet so there wasn't anything to push down against. I've never experienced that before, and I have no idea what caused it. I do know that Joker's saddle was too small for me, which didn't help.

Interestingly, Joker relaxed considerably after our first canter, which allowed me to open up some space between his nose and Guinness' arse, and that made things easier for the second half of the ride. Shortly after that, though, the lead horse spooked at some tape across a gap in the fence and Joker tensed up again, but he was still better than before.

For the second canter stretch, he zoomed up behind Guinness and tried to overtake him, doing the fastest trot in the west when I tried to slow him down. So, I tried "catch and release", holding him back in trot for a while and then spurring him back into canter once some space had opened up again. This worked really well and we had a few great canter strides in between manic trotting.

On the way back up the hill to the stable, though, Joker went all skittish again and started walking sideways. I found myself saying to him, "Sideways isn't the way forward," which is rather self-evident if you think about it. All in all, though, it was a really fun hack.