It’s a big world out there…

And Woodford thinks it can be, at times, a little overwhelming.

So yesterday I decided it was time to take Woods out of his little paddock while I was riding him.  We warmed up in the paddock first, and he was a super star.  I actually saw an outside corner of an inside eye, and at one point after about 10 minutes of bending and changing direction (mostly at the walk) Woody was actually trotting around with his nose on the ground and stretching into the bit.  He was relaxed and forward and willing.

Then I went on our little journey.  As you can see in the picture above there’s a lot to see up there on the hill where the ring is, and Woody wasn’t ready to take it all in, or at least that was my theory yesterday.  My friend Patricia has an OTTB who has a little bit of a anxiety attack when he is taken somewhere new if there’s too much scenery to absorb.  So they try to park their trailer at the bottom of a hill or some place without a view.  My hypothesis was based on n=1, but it was a good a place to start as any.

So the trip up to the ring was short lived, if I had stayed up there very longer my other hypothesis tells me I would have been flung over hill and dale and landed over yonder where Woody is staring in the above picture. 

So through some head flipping and prancing and hopping and jigging we headed back towards the paddock and spent the next 30 minutes walking in ever expanding circles getting farther from the paddock and closer to the ring.  Woods was good, alternating between very relaxed and then (seemingly) suddenly switching to ”gottagogottagogottago.”  But we ended on a good note and after we had untacked went on a little walk up to the ring. 

Woody checked out the old XC fence…

So today I decided we were going to start off in the paddock (where he was fantastic) and instead of heading straight up to the ring we’d do our slightly larger circle/wandering with a purpose up in the general direction.  He was a little tense at first (as displayed by the jigging and cantering in place) but eventually calmed down… only to randomly go Wheeeeeeeeeee! again.  Depending on the display I’d either send him forward (pre-explosion wheee) or sit a little deeper and ask him to bend a little and get his brain working (tiny jig).

This worked until we got up into the ring.  Once we got up in the ring I learned something about Woody.  He can pitch a fit like I haven’t seen in quite some time.  He would walk along la la la, and then realize he’d been away from his girlfriends for too long and would express his loneliness with a rather impressive and continuous cycle of crow hops, leaps forwards and head flips.  There was nothing mean or nefarious about the fits, they were just Woody telling me how he felt about what was going on, and that he’d rather be somewhere else… but nefarious or not, Woody needs to learn that certain channels of communications are not OK.

So I calmed him down from his first tango, made him walk and take a deep breath and then I got off him and hand walked him around the ring.  It was then I realized Woody was not overwhelmed, he would just rather be close to his ladies.  So, since he was trying to eat grass and resting his head on my chest, I climbed back aboard - from the ground; he didn’t move an inch and was nice and quiet… for about 2 minutes. 

I was TWO seconds from calling it a day and was even walking around on the buckle, bending and all chillaxing and then WHEEEEE!  Another manifestation. 

He’s not rude in that he does give me warning so there’s that, which is nice. 

This one was even MORE impressive than the first and for a minute I thought “I’m significantly older that the last time I took a digger off a TB.”  But I got him settled down again, and we once again were at least moving forward in something that is generally considered one of the traditional gaits (mostly walk)

So then, I got off again and longed his ass for a good 20 minutes.  Granted I wasn’t prepared to longe, so my circle was only as long as my reins (I unattached the rein from the outside bit), but I wanted him to work and I wanted to be the one making him do so.

Now, chances are Woody wouldn’t have escalated to a point where I would have gotten hurt, but that wasn’t really even the point by this time.  He was throwing a fit, and it was obvious that he was not as willing to do so when I was on the ground, and therefore more teachable.  Meanwhile, it’s pretty important that I do let him know, that despite my goofy and laid back demeanor, I am indeed the boss of him.

So my plan is to teach Woody just that, AND to teach him that the ring, although out of eyesight from the Heathers, is a place to work and to listen and that’s that.  I’m going to start doing this by longing him for our next couple of workouts.  That way he gets up in the ring, starts to acclimate, I get to boss him around, all the while not having to don safety goggles and bubble wrap to do so.

So today was a good day, we were both challenged and we both learned something… next time we’ll go from there. 

We ended on a good note with him trotting on a nice circle around me with his nose on the ground.  After this I took him back to the barn and gave him a good curry, his dinner, and turned him back out.

Have I mentioned that Woodford is a filthy filthy horse?  I groom that horse for at least 20-30 minutes everyday before I ride because he rolls with such enthusiasm.

Here’s Woody after our ride and another 10 minute grooming before I turned him out.

 

As you can see in this video, he wasted no time

Hopefully we’ll have good weather again tomorrow (goes out like a lamb, my ass) and I”ll get some video of me longing Sir Woods.

This is a nice thing to see at the end of ANY day