First off and much to my relief, I made it to the barn before dark tonight. Katie was there when I got there and had just finished up working Lena Rey. Bareback. For an hour and a half. Lena was a little evil and a lot feisty. Did the spotty mare look at all repentant? No. She looked quite pleased with herself, actually.
I was glad because Lena needed some work, though Katie had quite a ride.
Katie had also grained, so all I had to do was clean pens and take my big brown Thoroughbred out to play.
So I did.
Bar was good, if a little lazy. Surprising after being off since Saturday, but I'll take it.
After watching us for a few minutes, Katie decided to bring Forrest down, maybe let him and Bar run loose together, see how they did.
We didn't quite get that far, but we all learned a few things about each other.
Bar has always been a little weird being in the indoor arena when another horse is in the round pen. Too much action, too much noise, not sure what it is, but it has always set him off. So I let him loose when Katie and Forrest started working in the round pen, giving him control of his own comfort level.
He got over it and decided to be competitive instead. Zoom! There goes the big brown racehorse around the arena, causing Forrest to also kick up his heels. Wish I had video of that!
Only Forrest kicked up his heels with a little lack of coordination. All I heard was Katie's gasp (exclamation?) after a loud clatter of noise. Bar was still busy racing around and had turned to dance up to me when I figured out something was wrong inside the round pen.
Bar was exuberant. Bouncing towards me, rearing when he stopped, feeling his own energy. But then he listened to me, telling him to stop, to come to me so we could see what was going on in the round pen.
And he did. He was nervous, he was wary--eyes big around, nostrils flared. But he walked to me, let me re-attach his lead rope, and walk up the the round pen so we could check the situation.
Meanwhile, Forrest was stuck. hind feet under the edge of the round pen. Katie was scared because he wasn't trying to get up, fighting, or struggling. On the plus side, he wasn't doing any of those things and Katie figured out quickly that panicking would not help the situation.
Bar wasn't what I would call calm--the energy zinged under his skin--but he didn't blow. Forrest stayed cool until he figured out how to get up on his own. Katie figured out no matter how much her will, she is not big enough to move a horse.
Crazy racehorses? Really? Tonight, we had just the opposite. And it was cool.
4 comments:
Love how they dealt with the situation and were calm when they needed to be - now if I could just teach that trick to Dawn . . .
Thank goodness nobody--2-legged or 4-legged--went into panic mode. Love, Mom
Oh thank goodness Forrest was ok! That's like one of my biggest fears.
Miles doesn't like a horse displaying lots of energy anywhere near us when we're trying to work. If someone is just walking/trotting, or even doing a controlled canter? He's fine. BUT, if the person is yelling/waving a whip around, or the horse is zooming around and around, bucking, rearing, etc, he gets very worried. I don't blame him, I don't like it either, but I'd like him to relax and realize that whatever's going on over THERE has nothing to do with us:) Jury's still out:)
Far too many horses would have turned that situation from bad to worse. Forrest is a smart fella.
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