Cavalli Connections » The lifelong pursuit of classical riding.

Thoroughbred Week Part 2

Well I made it through the week alive!  Meet thoroughbred #2, aka Zoe.

Zoe is about 10, and from what I’ve heard, has had some really crappy training methods bestowed upon her.  When I first met Zoe, something about her just looked wrong to me and I thought for sure she was much older.  Turns out, her body just looks like that because she is completely backwards and upside down with her muscle development.

So Tuesday night I am lunging her (because she is a bit crazy at night and it was my first time getting on her) and I’m watching her go around and around…and I’m squinting in disbelief over what I’m seeing.  There is a complete disconnect between her front and hind end.  If you look closely it actually looks like two people in a horse costume trying to get it together; her back end literally chases her front end.  Wow.

I had swapped her corkscrew snaffle that her owners ride her in for a mullen mouth, because of course you always ride in the softest bit possible!  I had that and a French link 3-piece and the mullen mouth initially looked like it might be more her size.  Luckily, my dressage saddle fit her.

When you first start lunging her she bucks…but it’s not really a normal buck.  She humps her back like there’s a kink and bounces her back end around and will kick out here and there.  I’ve been told she pretty much always has to get that out so that’s why they lunge her before riding, especially at night.  They think she’s “cold-backed”.  I’ve never really known a horse that was cold-backed so I had no idea what it was supposed to look like – perhaps she’s just trying to figure out where her back end is!

I get on and discover there are no brakes – for me anyways.  Dropping my weight and stopping my seat has no effect.  None.  It’s pretty obvious that down transitions and halts have been achieved by hauling on her mouth because when I squeeze that outside rein she throws herself on the bit in defense.

Tuesday night I did a little trotting, but it was a short session to see what she felt like.  I cannot believe how stiff and inflexible this horse is!  She moves off your leg though, if only a little.  Tuesday night is spent only doing halt-walk-trot-walk-halt stuff.  And it’s horrible.  I spent a lot of time thinking, can I even do this???

Thursday night, I switch the bit for the French link because I didn’t really care for the mullen mouth.  I thought she would like a moving bit that she could play with a little more.  I lunge her again, and she’s not quite as wild.  When I get on, I immediately like the French link bit better – she seems a little lighter.  However, as the ride goes on, she makes a habit of sticking her neck and nose out and twisting her head so her right cheek is pointing at the sky.  And she only does it a few strides after beginning to trot.  I rode through it, thinking it could be the new bit, the fact that she’s never really been ridden with consistent contact, or maybe all the foam from the sugar was ticking her lips (she looked like she stuck her nose in whipped cream – it was really cute).

I decide that I need some brakes before I can even think about cantering.

This is where the rope around her neck comes in, and if you have this problem I highly suggest using this!  In Zoe’s case I had to go one step further and bring in some sugar.

A lot of horses will slow down or stop when they feel pressure on their chests from the rope, and since horses learn by association, when you stop your seat and use the rope, they learn that your seat can tell them to slow/stop as well.  Zoe, being Zoe, didn’t react at all to the rope at first.  On to plan B!

I fill my pocket with sugar cubes.  I stop my seat, use the rope, and then use outside rein until I get a halt.  Then I give her a piece of sugar.  It only took her 2-3 times and then as soon as she felt me touch that rope, BAM, halt.  I even got a few halts just from my seat.  Woohoo, we have brains…if nothing else!

And now we trot, new trick in the bag.  Luckily, the seat and rope lesson transfers through and when I slow my seat and pull the rope gently we get a decent trot to walk transition with no reins required.  Still, out of habit, she gets heavy in my hands…but that will take more time.

Finally, I get to ride her in the morning on Sunday.  I lunge her anyway, and she is half asleep.  I give her a few less sugar cubes in case the excess of foam was bothering her, but she still contorts her head and neck a bit every once in awhile.  It seems to be a bit less and last a shorter period of time though, and she didn’t seem to be in pain…so I continued to ride through it.  Like Ryan, she is definitely stiffer to the left and has a hard time turning in that direction.

We even try a canter in both directions, which is horribly not smooth.  Zoe switches her lead in the back constantly and it seems like she canters on the wrong lead in the back more often than the correct one.  No doubt her back end has severe weaknesses.  I stiffened up a bit too, which didn’t help!

Afterwards, I ran into her owner when putting her away.  Her 11 year old that rides her wants to ride another day and her older sister’s horse is lame so she might Zoe ride 1-2 days a week.  So she tells me that maybe for awhile I will only be able to ride once a week.  *sigh*  It’s too bad because I was just starting to feel like maybe I could make some sort of difference.  But with a horse this messed up, I don’t think I can really help all that much riding once a week.  Oh well!  We shall see what happens…