CTJ: May 2020 Edition

Goose is a tricky bastard. He's safe enough to put a tiny tot on, but if you actually know what you're doing and ask him to work, he NOPEs right out of there with some cleverly evasive tactics. Forward into the bridle? How about I just go as slow as possible while you spur and smack me and I'll just totally tune you out. Really digging in with that right spur? Lemme just kick out instead of going forward. Come round? Oh, do you mean giraffe and drop my shoulder out? Cool that's what I thought. The horse is big, and knows how to throw his weight around and sometimes it can be really scary and dangerous. He knows how to trigger people and sometimes, yeah he gets away with it. 

"I'll be better if you give me more treats, promise"

Before anyone gets after me about getting him checked out for physical problems, I promise you he's in great health and despite looking like a land whale, he's sound and surprisingly athletic. He has a great back, great feet, and I'd keep the list going but I'm too scared to jinx it *knocks wood*. No ulcers either, promise.

One trainer who made a huge difference for us was Kendra Clarke (K. Clarke Equine). We went to school together and when I needed a trainer to help me through some major issues with Goose back in 2015, I called her up. For the next three-ish years until I moved, she helped me figure him out and came up with some pretty creative and clever solutions for working through our marital disputes.

One of my favorite things she taught me is long lining. Goose took to it really quickly, and will work nicely in a circle or be ground driven all over the place. I like it because it gives me a chance to watch him work, keep him correct, and if it happens (and it always happens), it's sometimes easier to argue with him from the ground than on his back. I think it also helps a lot with his fitness and roundness - it's easier for him to use his long back and get stronger without a rider always up top.

I haven't done too much with it over the past few years, but decided now is the perfect time to break out the surcingle and get in some boot camp. He's been worked lightly by friends the past two months so he's not totally at square one, but two weeks of long lining would have the benefit of hopefully getting his soft and stretchy, and give me a couple extra miles of running in circles with him before I hop back up.

The first two days went great, the goal was just softness and relaxation with mostly trying to find a forward walk, and short bouts of trot as well. He cooperated and there was definite improvement between day one and two. Day three, however, is when shit hit the fan.

Day one, not asking for much and all was well.

Goose has this super fun tendency to decide that he's simply had enough. To show his distaste for the current task, he does this leaping-head fling-shoulder throw that is truly delightful. While this is true both under saddle and on the lines, below is a pretty good depiction of what he does in any tack setup.

Step 1: Fling one's head as high as possible.

Step 2: Add in a good leap.

Step 3: Yank the line out of human's hand. If you fail, start again at Step 1.

While on him, it's hard to keep both reins when 1400 lbs of angry Goose is trying to rip it out of my hands. On long lines, it's nearly impossible to hold onto whatever rein he's grabbing when he's darted to the outside in a leaping fit of head tossing. So on Monday, he figured out he can get one of the lines away from me if he catches me off guard and proceeded to do it four times. I got him through it and we had some lovely moments to end on, and I hoped against hope that it was just because he was a little sore and tired on day three of work but after a few days off he'd be back at it with brain cells in working order.

Last night, after two days off, I went out and popped him on the lines again. He immediately was soft and stretching down, giving me a really nice walk and trot. Except he was going the pace of a western pleasure horse. After warming him up and walk and trot for 15-20 minutes, I was starting to really get after him to go forward. He knows voice commands perfectly well, but no amount of "TRRRRR-OTT" and clucking would get him forward. He just moseyed around completely tuning me out. I could see it in his eye, "lady I know you want stretching AND forward but today I'm only giving you stretching, deal with it".

This is the most frustrating part about Goose. I give him all the chances in the world to give me the right answer. I ask kindly, then slowly escalate and get sterner, get a little closer with the whip, a little more intentional with the voice signals. I run at him on the lunge to get him forward. He. Does. NOTHING. So then I smack him on the butt with the whip (I promise not too hard) and instead of just doing what I'm asking, what he KNOWS I want, he explodes.

This is where the come to Jesus enters the picture, starting with the smack right on his butt. In a fit of rage, he leaps into the air, throwing his head and shoulder to the outside to snatch the rein. Except I was ready for it, so I grab the inside rein to check him. He ends up facing me, and then RUNS BACKWARDS halfway across the field. I didn't let go, just stayed with him cursing the day he was born, and he finally stops, panting, and gives me the "oh shit sorry the demons took over again I didn't mean it please don't make me work hard now" look.

And just like that, he could wtc on cue, no whip needed, lovely and quick transitions and soft and round through his back. It was like night and day and I HATE that it needed the explosion to get to this. I would have been happy with a soft, slightly forward, stretchy trot but I ended up getting some really nice work out of him.

Cooling out and ground driving around the dressage arena last weekend.

Even though I've moved 10 hours south, Kendra and I keep in touch both on a trainer/client level and as friends. I've kept her in the loop with what's going this past week and she offered me some insight. First, she suggested I get a set of Vienna reins. Keep them loose, pop him on a regular lunge, and let him figure out his head flinging against himself. My new pair arrives on Monday, excitement would be an understatement.

She also recommended working him twice a day once in awhile to show him, yeah dude, you actually have to work when I freaking tell you it's time to work, even if it's twice in one day. I'm also looking into Magnesium for him for a variety of reasons. She assured me this is who he is, it's not anything I'm doing wrong, and he doesn't subscribe to the normal level of escalations most horses need. He's just Goose and we work with what we've got. (Hi Kendra please move to NC so we can ride with you again).

The hardest thing about all of this is he's SO NICE when he puts in the work, and after we get into these disputes and I put him back to work, he looks pleased with himself and like he's enjoying it. He's not green, he's 16 this year and has some fun buttons and has all the information installed for what I'm asking for in this scenario. I don't like fighting with him, I hate that we reach these peaks and I have to push him through. But the lazy hippo likes to work, you can see it in his face when he does something hard and he's proud of himself and when he does something new and challenging under saddle he get so into it for a little while and puffs up and it's so amazing. So here we are, another post about Goose the bully and how sometimes I need to be the bigger asshole. Horses, eh?

At least I have something to write about now. The pictures are not from the past few days, but I'm hoping that if we get some good moments I'll be able to grab some videos and pictures of him, or get a friend to video from a safe distance.

After eight years I still love this Goober.