Ride today

I decided to ride today - even though it was back to bedlam at the farm. Tractors fertilising, kids riding bikes, wind, horses arriving (another new grazer), horses going out, two in the arena trying to ride their horses who seemed to be picking up on the extremely busy atmosphere...

Anyway - as crazy as it seemed I got on. Had carrots in my pocket.

Decided not to attempt the arena - much too much energy going on. We headed for the paddock down by the driveway (away from barn and other horses) and Garbo was doing the 'no - I want to go back that way' trick and just turning his head and bracing when I would try and lift his opposite rein and lead him back on the track....

So - I decided to take a leaf out of Cilla's book, and just keep at it. I kind of treated it like tit for tat crossed with follow the track/trail. After what seemed like ages we got to the paddock - the distance of about 30m took about 5 minutes - seemed like ages longer.

What happens, like Cilla, when he gets so determined to go back, and does a 180, he tenses up when I try to turn him the other way, or I do first perhaps, and then I get nervous he will bolt or buck. But I stayed focused and determined to be a leader. We got in the paddock and he would go up one side (the closest side to the barn) and back to the gate, but not any further away form the barn. We did a little bit of tit for tat to try and get further away but I didn't want it to turn into a fight so I reverted to PPL and let Garbo take me where he wanted to go.

Funnily enough he didn't go back to the barn/stable/tie up area, he went to the race at the back of the barn - which is of course the race which is lined with paddocks of 7 horses down one end and 5 down the other end. We walked down the race and I used follow the rail to keep him away from the electric fence. He tried to turn at one stage but I kept his head straight. We went into the paddock at the other end and there was a bucket in there - the horse was in the arena so I thought of a good game that someone on the forum does. Instead of handing Garbo the treats - each time we trotted or cantered to the bucket I threw a carrot piece into the bucket. So that was fun.

Heading back down the race after a bit, I felt a bit nervous getting too close to the tractor so I got off just before the barn.

So - fair way to go yet before we get to Cilla's page in the book with this. But I'll keep on doing what she has been doing as I think our horses are very similar.