Unexpected Lesson Days
What you see above is a serene photo of a horse relaxing in a field. The journey it took to get there…well…horses keep you on your toes for sure.
Murphy so far has been a superstar, not putting a foot wrong. He’s explored around the property, performed lovely groundwork, walked to the upper barn, calmly cantered around the spooky indoor ring, is a gentleman in the crossties, etc etc. So imagine my surprise when I arrived at the barn this morning and Jose, his caretaker, told me he was wild in turnout. So much so that he had to be brought inside after only 30 minutes, despite multiple tactics to calm him.
My plan for today was a walk up to the upper barn and a ride in the smaller outdoor ring there, to let him see another place on the property - but this news presented me with some decisions. I could:
Stick to the plan and see how he did
Give him a little Ace and then execute the plan
Do groundwork in the lower barn’s outdoor ring and see what his energy was like
I felt bold and went with Option 1. He had been described as a very easy going, ammy friendly horse, and he had given us no reason to feel otherwise up to that point. I felt confident after he calmly walked into the crossties and stood still as always for getting tacked up. He was interested in the horses he saw in the upper barn’s outdoor ring, but he didn’t seem to be getting an increase in energy.
The walk to the upper barn was uneventful - I could feel he was a little bit reluctant to leave the lower barn behind him, but I thought that once he reached the other horses, he would settle with some friends.
I was wrong. The other horses, instead of bringing his energy down, brought it up. I could feel him start to get upset, so I hopped down before he could perform any antics that would get me, him, or other horses upset. I did a little groundwork (wishing for my rope halter and groundline!) at the gate to the ring, moving his feet and trying to redirect his energy - I even tried to really ground myself and see if he would settle and be interested in any of the new Spring grass by the ring.
Alas, it wasn’t happening - Tik Maynard talks about the level of energy past where a horse can focus. On a scale of 1-10, he places that at a 3. I would say Murphy was a solid 6/7 - as in nothing was really going to get through to him and he gave me his best Full Arabian impression.
As soon as I felt like I could walk him without it turning into a kite situation, I took him into the indoor ring. There, by ourselves, he started to settle again. We did stops, starts, backing up, and moving his front and hind feet around until I felt like he was in a place where I could try getting on again.
I walked into the ring on his back, but it was clear after only 30 seconds that, no, Murphy was still not ready to focus with a rider. So back down I came, back to groundwork. At this point, I had a few other choices:
Do more groundwork and call it a day
Do more ground work and try to get back on him
Give him a little Ace, then do more groundwork, then try to get back on him
I went with Option 3. I probably also could have longed him at this point, but there were riders now in both the indoor and outdoor rings, and I didn’t want to risk setting their horses off if I was wrong about his energy level.
This time when I remounted Murphy after letting the Ace take effect and doing more groundwork in the meantime, I felt him really tune back in and settle. He took nice deep breaths. We picked up the trot and he stayed calm and attentive. We did a few loops with some big circles, and then walked down to the lower barn. I immediately untacked him and turned him back out, where he calmly started to eat.
And this is what you see in the photograph.
I know this is a long story about seemingly nothing, but there are a few things today’s session highlights for me.
The first is I’m proud of how I handled things. In the past, behavior like this from a horse would have undone me - I would have gotten extremely anxious and added fuel to the fire. I feel like I now have a broader skillset, a better understanding of when to use them appropriately, and a better understanding of my limits in and out of the saddle.
Before, I would have viewed dismounting and working him from the ground as a “loss” or that he had “won” - but horses don’t really have a concept of that. He wasn’t trying to get into any sort of pissing match with me - he was just very worked up. It didn’t really matter whether I addressed it from the saddle or from the ground, the main goal was to get his attention back to his job and his energy back to a manageable place - which I did. I also am very comfortable to use Ace as a tool. I did not “drug him into submission,.” I merely used a very small amount to take the very top off. Believe me…if he wanted to break through it and perform airs above ground, he very easily could have.
The second is that you really truly have to ride the horse you have that day. Murphy gave us no reason to think that today, more than a week after his arrival, he would have a reaction like this. Who knows what happened. May he smelled something. Maybe he slept poorly. Maybe he’s just a baby thoroughbred still going through a big transition. Whatever it was, I had to take the horse in front of me and come up with a game-plan that I was also ready to change at a moment’s notice. I also can’t let today influence how I approach things tomorrow, other than I now have a better understanding of what he might be like on a day when Jose informs me he didn’t turn out well.
There are always going to be days like this when you have unexpected lessons thrown at you. That’s when you have to dig into your toolbox, and also assess along the way how those tools worked or didn’t work. While it’s of course always less stressful to have an uneventful ride, sometimes the eventful days are where we do the most growing.