It's funny. I don't think of Dee as being a particularly difficult horse to ride. I mean, yes, she is forward to the jumps, but she doesn't ever make me nervous... maybe because I've ridden some horses who can be truly scary over the fences when they "make a bid" (Elvis, Roo, Dusty...even Tango at the clinic...). I may try to push myself this week... put the fences up a bit and see how she does over a course. I only hesitate because even after little fences I have some trouble with my back, but I kind of want to see what she's like.
I had someone try her out yesterday, and was really surprised at Dee's behavior over fences. She was WILD. As soon as she saw the fences, she would stick her head in the air, throw her weight off to one side and start doing that hollow-backed canter that no one ever wants their horse to do because you feel out of control when they do it. The she would leap over the fence like a jack-rabbit and take-off. She even threw a buck after a few of the fences, which is VERY uncharacteristic. I mean, I love jumping her now because I feel safe with her... I would never expect her to act like such a wild beast. And who knows, maybe she doesn't act like a wild beast with me because I expect her not to and don't ride her like a runaway. Maybe it's just because from my experience with Dusty, I learned that the more you clamp down on a hot horse while you're jumping, the bigger the mess ends up being. Hell, I made Dusty a crazy mess for awhile there until Jen got me to stop riding backwards.
Tango also helped me with riding a runaway when I took him to the Jon Holling clinic. With him, it was a little different, because he wasn't running because I was riding backwards... he was just being as ass. Jon helped me realize that if you keep a cool head and just quietly deal with whatever the horse is doing, it will eventually get better. The key was not making it a big deal... just make little corrections so the horse knows what is happening is unacceptable, but other than that, keep yourself calm and carry on.
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