Thursday, September 13, 2012

Alex and Tequila make me crazy

Ok, so you'll just have to take my word for it on the Tequila, because this post isn't about that :-) 

Alex had Saturday thru Monday off while I was in St. Louis on my girls trip, so on Tuesday I was all set to go back to work, after such a stellar night on Friday.  I got to the barn a little later than normal so there was already a lesson going on in our normal arena.  No biggie I thought, I'll just use the smaller arena.  By the time I got him all tacked and ready to go, someone decided to ride in the small arena too, so we had to wait.  Finally we got into the arena and started working on the lunge.  Alex was a little rambunctious, but nothing that bothered me, so I decided to get on and ride.  Literally, like one minute after I got into the saddle they started turning horses out.  Alex went immediately into giraffe mode and I could feel the explosion coming.  First there was a leap buck.  Then as the mare that had just recently been turned out started running around screaming for her friends that weren't out yet, Alex went into his pièce de résistance, the leap-buck-spin... repeat...repeat. 

Once we hit the ground, I decided this situation wasn't going to get better with me in the saddle (and that I might just leave the saddle if I wasn't careful), so I had better get off and keep lunging him.  Alex has a bad habit of "cutting in" on me (when being lunged in a circle) when he is wound up and/or distracted.  As he did this, I chased him away with the lunge line in my right hand and he kicked out at me with his hind foot clipping me in the wrist.  Thankfully, it's just a slight sprain and and an ugly bruise, because there was definitely a second where I thought "oh shit, I've just broken my wrist."  Not one to be deterred, I continued to lunge him until he calmed himself down.

In the barn, I think Alex realized he was in trouble, because normally he gets kisses and pats and love after a ride... there was none of that, just a bath and a trip to his stall. 

Tonight, after another day off (I had a much needed massage on Wednesday, a must for all riders in my opinion), Alex and I went back to work.  Tonight I hustled to get Alex ready and get into my arena of choice.  Thankfully there was less commotion around the farm tonight.  He was almost lazy on the lunge, so after pushing him a bit to see if I could get the "wild man" to come out, when it didn't, I decided it was time to get back in the saddle.  Of course, in true Alex fashion, the switch had flipped and he was nearly perfect. 

This used to happen with Gryff too... I think I've just kinda forgotten.  Here's my thought for the last couple days... baby TBs are like bi-polar people, on any given day you just never know what horse you're going to get :-) 

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