I have one mare I'm trying to teach to jump, and an old guy I'm trying to keep from it. Beau is a 18-20 year old grade Anglo Arab. He used to race, and won some great ribbons and awards in eventing. He jumped 3'+ in the ring, but I've seen him jump a 4 1/2' fence like it were nothing. He likes to jump just a little too much. I have to keep his paddock as clean as a nursery, no fallen sticks or logs more than 1/2" in diametre can be in there or he will jump them until he gets too exhausted to do it. The guy has a full 5 acres to go on, but he will jump that until he is too tired to do it any more. Unlike my other mare, he doesn't do it because it's fun to him, he simply thinks it's his job. He choked two or three years ago and it has taken him this long to be lightly rideable again because he kept working all this weight off. He gets almost a full bucket of Triple Crown Senior watered down (because of choking) every day, plus corn oil and alfalfa, and we still get calls from people telling us we don't feed that one horse enough! Even though we have 7 others we are trying to work weight off of because they have grass bellies :roll:
He only has half an acre of hardwoods, and we can't move his paddock because he's the babysitter for the broodmares. Any suggestions on how to get him to chill? Can't stall him because he flips out if he's not with his mares and loses 15lbs in a day from stress. His energy isn't the problem either. He will keep jumping until he is going, head down, exhausted, and I have to force him to stop. I can't get on him to try to work with him that way because he is still a little too underweight for a rider.
Thanks so much!
