Horsin' around
When I moved home, I had thought that I would like to get another horse, as a project to bring on and if needed to keep the fabulous Fred company. I didn't know then how I'd get the yard down the road and how that would work out.
Not too long after I moved home a friend contacted me about a racehorse that wasn't fast enough and would be going to the factory unless a better offer came. This threw the decision of whether or not to get another horse in front of me a lot faster than I had anticipated!! I hummed and hawed......I wasn't ready yet, financially and otherwise. I would have to break it to my folks, not entirely sure how that would have gone down, being that I wasn't employed yet either.......As it happens the horse got sorted with somewhere else.
My one and only Fred started to go a bit lame in September, he was diagnosed with ringbone arthritis the year before, so I reckoned it was at him again. The thing about moving with horses is, you no longer have your vet/farrier/dentist, and you have to start again. I knew he needed his steroid injections again and I hadn't a clue who did them in the area. So I rang around a load of vets and couldn't get an answer. I asked my neighbours advice, as they have a lot of horses and they suggested a local vet - which was very handy. He did the injections - a lot don't actually. So Fred got sorted, and was off on holidays till they settled in. This meant that I was horseless.
My neighbours had a cob that hadn't been touched in over a year but had been broken and riding. I decided to get him going for them. So along came Mr. Blonde. Mr. Blonde was freakin awesome!! He was such a dude. We had great fun until he got sold.
Around this time I asked my neighbour if he had anything for sale that might suit me. I had a look at a few of his stock and a piebald caught my eye. I liked him. He was unbroken and 4 years old. A definite project......so onto the scene arrived Cu Chulainn.....
I set about breaking him in myself. I got myself a breaking bit and a lunge whip. I had the rest of the stuff. He took to the bit like he'd had one his whole life. Eventually he got the hang of the lunging. So we worked away on that. Then came the day where I decided, right it's time to get up on him. That went really well too. We walked around the yard. Then the next time we walked by ourselves around the yard. Then the next time we trotted. We are on a roll here!! This is fantastic!! We were doing so good, I decided, it's time for the arena!! The arena was no small affair, it was a good 30*60 or even bigger arena. With a stone wall bordering two sides. So we got up in the arena, walked around a bit with our walker, all good. Then took off the lunge rope. Fine.....fine........spook - gone!! So I'm flying around the arena on this baby, staring at the stone wall that I'm surely about to crash in to, then the saddle starts to slip, awesome and BANG. I hit the ground. I stayed down for a few seconds, it was quite the bang. By the time we caught him he had the saddle underneath him. Back to the old amateur status for me.......idiot. I got back up on him, because you have to with horses. But we kept him on the lunge. He spooked again and my friend had a hard time holding him, it didn't help that he has no horse experience. So I hopped off after a few mins. It's ok, we both survived. Just a broken finger.
I fell off once more after that and I decided enough is enough. I've come as far as I can, I need to send him to the professionals. He got returned to me from one as a 'dangerous' horse. It took ages then for me to get him to another person, between him not being available and what not. But eventually it happened and he returned back to me. All set to go. Well he was, I however.........
With horse riding it's a Catch 22 situation. If you're nervous about falling off, you'll be tense and you'll really hurt yourself and probably be more likely to fall off. So, my phrase for people is ' you gotta fake it till you make it' and by that I mean you must fake confidence and then it will grow from that.
I wasn't ready to get back on him myself, but luckily I had a guinea pig. The only trouble was my guinea pig wasn't frequently available. So Cu Chulainn had an excellent start to the summer, not really having to work and he needed to fatten up anyway.
Eventually, I got up on him myself. I had to. I was shitting a brick. Extremely tense, which is never good for a young horse. It went fine, we just walked around the yard. The trouble was, I could only ride him when someone was around. So that wasn't every day either. I was still tense. I had planned on doing a few different competitions on him, and some of those came and went. I did bring him to do some in-hand shows. He won his very first one!! I was a complete novice. I've done lightweight hunter with fantastic Fred a good few times (would still rate us as fairly novice), but in-hand was something I'd both never watched, nor competed in. We learned as we went along. He can trot in hand no problem now!!
I came home after the RDS horseshow and said to myself; 'Right. I have to ride him every day this week or sell him. There is no point pussy footing around.' I knew it was the only way I'd either overcome the fear or know if we'd gel. So I rode him 6 days that week and boom, the fear went. Those competitions were back on again!!
Not too long after I moved home a friend contacted me about a racehorse that wasn't fast enough and would be going to the factory unless a better offer came. This threw the decision of whether or not to get another horse in front of me a lot faster than I had anticipated!! I hummed and hawed......I wasn't ready yet, financially and otherwise. I would have to break it to my folks, not entirely sure how that would have gone down, being that I wasn't employed yet either.......As it happens the horse got sorted with somewhere else.
My one and only Fred started to go a bit lame in September, he was diagnosed with ringbone arthritis the year before, so I reckoned it was at him again. The thing about moving with horses is, you no longer have your vet/farrier/dentist, and you have to start again. I knew he needed his steroid injections again and I hadn't a clue who did them in the area. So I rang around a load of vets and couldn't get an answer. I asked my neighbours advice, as they have a lot of horses and they suggested a local vet - which was very handy. He did the injections - a lot don't actually. So Fred got sorted, and was off on holidays till they settled in. This meant that I was horseless.
My neighbours had a cob that hadn't been touched in over a year but had been broken and riding. I decided to get him going for them. So along came Mr. Blonde. Mr. Blonde was freakin awesome!! He was such a dude. We had great fun until he got sold.
Around this time I asked my neighbour if he had anything for sale that might suit me. I had a look at a few of his stock and a piebald caught my eye. I liked him. He was unbroken and 4 years old. A definite project......so onto the scene arrived Cu Chulainn.....
I fell off once more after that and I decided enough is enough. I've come as far as I can, I need to send him to the professionals. He got returned to me from one as a 'dangerous' horse. It took ages then for me to get him to another person, between him not being available and what not. But eventually it happened and he returned back to me. All set to go. Well he was, I however.........
With horse riding it's a Catch 22 situation. If you're nervous about falling off, you'll be tense and you'll really hurt yourself and probably be more likely to fall off. So, my phrase for people is ' you gotta fake it till you make it' and by that I mean you must fake confidence and then it will grow from that.
I wasn't ready to get back on him myself, but luckily I had a guinea pig. The only trouble was my guinea pig wasn't frequently available. So Cu Chulainn had an excellent start to the summer, not really having to work and he needed to fatten up anyway.
Eventually, I got up on him myself. I had to. I was shitting a brick. Extremely tense, which is never good for a young horse. It went fine, we just walked around the yard. The trouble was, I could only ride him when someone was around. So that wasn't every day either. I was still tense. I had planned on doing a few different competitions on him, and some of those came and went. I did bring him to do some in-hand shows. He won his very first one!! I was a complete novice. I've done lightweight hunter with fantastic Fred a good few times (would still rate us as fairly novice), but in-hand was something I'd both never watched, nor competed in. We learned as we went along. He can trot in hand no problem now!!
I came home after the RDS horseshow and said to myself; 'Right. I have to ride him every day this week or sell him. There is no point pussy footing around.' I knew it was the only way I'd either overcome the fear or know if we'd gel. So I rode him 6 days that week and boom, the fear went. Those competitions were back on again!!
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