Zapa is an amazing 3 year old. His willingness, disposition, softness in the bosol, sensitivity, ALL are amazing qualities. He will cross water, walk on bridges, jump obstacles, and walk on a tarp. But he is still too spooky, especially with noise. His spookiness has gotten me on the ground twice in the last week. The first time I landed on my feet, but the second time I landed on my hip and hit my head (Yipee for helmets). He isn’t bucking or rearing, he just spins so quickly that I loose my seat, damn these little fast horses! This last time he was mortified to see me lying on the ground.
Cause #1 was a ‘partner’ flag, a flag on stick that Steve Rother uses. Cause #2 was a car door slamming outside of the arena in the dark. So, because I love this horse but I love my health more, I am going to get this horse desensitized. Today I made scary sticks.
I saw some dowels at Wal-Mart (I usually don’t shop there, but knew I could find flags there), and remembered this stick Bruce and Betty have that has bells and ribbons on it. I thought ah-ha, I can make my own versions. So instead of buying a very expensive flag, I bought some flag like fabric at $1.00 a yard (3 yards was plenty for a variety of sizes). I also bought some bells and some clearance plastic flowers. In all I spent $11.50. I had some eyelet screw and put those on the end of the dowels to tie stuff to, but next time I think I might try something different (not quite soft enough for attaching).
Anyway, I took my scary sticks down to the barn and started working on Zapa. He made progress with the flag. I tied some of the fabric to his hay rack and it hangs down into his grain bin. I also put some of the flowers in the hay rack (he doesn’t use the hay rack). Next on my list is to make a Scary CD. I wonder how many random sounds (not copyrighted of course) I can find on the internet. Like a good blogger, I’ll let you know!
1 comment:
I feel your pain about the small (hot blooded) horses = FAST on their horsie feet. My Crabbet Arabian was the best horse anyone could wish for on so many levels, but he had one annoying quirk... he would spook at rocks, bushes and the like on the trail. :|
He wasn't "spooky" per se, because I rode him next to fast moving trains (seriously!), over NARROW railroad bridges, through pathways of tractors and farm machinery without a horsie eyelash batted, but when that rock that appeared around the bend of a trail, Look Out!
He would spook so hard, so fast, without any warning and 90% of the time I would hit the ground. I almost wished he would spook all the time--I grew to envy other Arabian owners who could point out something that their horse would spook at before it happened--because I was always unprepared for it.
I have a feeling that patience and repetition will cure Zapa. Let me know if you need an assistant if you go out to the barn on Saturday!
Here, I made a sign...
I will perform barn chores for Paso ride on Precious!
;) :) XD
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