I have a 3 year old OTT TB gelding who is a total sweetheart. Very gentle, forgiving, has his quirks (I've never met a horse that enjoys deworming, he was mad when I made him give the dispenser thingy back!), but none the less, a very laid back horse. Or so it seemed.
I have been gently trying to teach him to lunge nicely - just at a slow, calm walk. And we accomplish this ... for all of three seconds until he notices that OHMYGAWWWWWD, SHE'S ATTACHED TO MEEEEE. And then all hell breaks loose.
He bucks, rears, kicks, snorts, and farts his way all over the place, dragging my sorry **** all over the field. And half an hour later, we come back, and I'm covered head to boot - if I even still have boots on (have had an occasion where one was yanked off in a particularly deep sink hole of muck.)
I feel that I need to let him blow before I work him. Just let him have his little flip out, and that he'll chill right out. But the place where I currently board has nothing to ride in.
Correction, nothing actually usable. They have a pathetic "fenced in ring" that is about as long, and wide as I could spit. And there's no door. I let my older gelding out, and had to fence him in with a lunge line strategically zig zagged across the opening. And quite frankly, I'm afraid that if I let my youngster out there (being the hefty boy he is, standing 17.1h), he may end up hurting himself, or taking out one of the fences.
Suggestions on how and where to let him blow? Or how to correct the dragging mom across hell's half acre, without pulling my arms out of their sockects?
Thanks in advance!
I have been gently trying to teach him to lunge nicely - just at a slow, calm walk. And we accomplish this ... for all of three seconds until he notices that OHMYGAWWWWWD, SHE'S ATTACHED TO MEEEEE. And then all hell breaks loose.
He bucks, rears, kicks, snorts, and farts his way all over the place, dragging my sorry **** all over the field. And half an hour later, we come back, and I'm covered head to boot - if I even still have boots on (have had an occasion where one was yanked off in a particularly deep sink hole of muck.)
I feel that I need to let him blow before I work him. Just let him have his little flip out, and that he'll chill right out. But the place where I currently board has nothing to ride in.
Correction, nothing actually usable. They have a pathetic "fenced in ring" that is about as long, and wide as I could spit. And there's no door. I let my older gelding out, and had to fence him in with a lunge line strategically zig zagged across the opening. And quite frankly, I'm afraid that if I let my youngster out there (being the hefty boy he is, standing 17.1h), he may end up hurting himself, or taking out one of the fences.
Suggestions on how and where to let him blow? Or how to correct the dragging mom across hell's half acre, without pulling my arms out of their sockects?
Thanks in advance!