It's hard to erase this stuff from your head, especially due to the explosive fear reactions I've experienced with Mag - and they are true panic reactions. Unpredictable causes.
Today he reacted to the same rain jacket that Ani wore the first time she rode him. I had a nice relaxed first-ride back on him and then she got on. As soon as she asked for the trot, her jacket must have rustled, and he took off in blind panic, tail between his legs, and his bucking sent her through the arena fence.
He kept going full tilt (so, unintentionally). I ran to her and made sure she was not dead, and as I pieced the fence back together, Mag kept going, earning a nasty kick from Mira who he kept running into (small arena) leaving a long scratch on his chest.
I comforted Ani a while, apologizing, but she wanted to get back on, this time without the jacket.
I hooked my brand-new 12 foot lead line on because he was so tense, and saw that he couldn't even walk, he was so nervous, his body was rock hard and his chin curled to his chest. So we just stood there a while til he chewed. He chewed again and I started leading him.
Then, because he was itchy because he had soaked himself in sweat from his bolt, he shook.
Somehow shaking himself caused a second panic. He took off so fast I had no chance of holding that extra-long safety rope. He sprang around and she hit the ground after about 5 leaps, landing in a huge puddle. He kept going, running laps around the tiny ring and I went to Ani who was covered completely in wet sand, her face was not even visible, because she landed face-first. Her glasses were also coated, and her entire helmet was brown. A few times Mag almost ran into us.
This time she was really shook up and couldn't get the sand out of her eyes, nose or mouth.
Anytime Ani moved, he spooked away from her.
This is the girl who fed him the last two weeks while we were in America, and she wore that same outfit. This is the same rain outfit she first rode him in, I confirmed in the photos I'd posted on this blog.
Even afterwards, he couldn't handle it if Ani walked Mira behind him, she had to be in front.
I stayed with her and walked all the way home with her, and she kept trying to touch him and he eventually let her, but never lost that look in his eye. When we parted ways, she got on her bike and that action alone sent him swirling around me.
If you wonder how much sacking out I've done with him, you would think zero. But if you've read the blog you know how much time I've spent attaching things to his saddle (even coke bottles filled with rocks), and how much tarp and umbrella work I've done with him. The rump rug was and may still be a problem (in wind perhaps). And I still don't trust anyone but me to blanket him. He's fine with me coiling ropes around his legs - because he sees what I'm doing and expects it.
You can see how he felt about the rump rug in Sept 2016.
I drove to Ani's place tonight and left her a gift and a note. She had sent me an SMS that she was so sorry that I cannot trust my horse, that she still likes Mag.
He's such a good boy so much of the time, I wonder what his childhood trauma is.
And I'm really sick of not being able to trust a horse.
***
Addendum: Ani's barnmate Ulrike arrived at the same moment we did, and asked if we'd had a nice morning. I nodded the direction of Ani, "Ask her, please"
Ulrike waited until Ani told the entire story, as she let her horse snuffle Mag, and the two geldings nuzzled each other for comfort, Storm had just gone by a tree chipping team, the same one we'd done 3 weeks ago that sent Mira away and Mag almost got away from me.
I left them to talk, and took Mag to the tree removal/chipping team, just to make a fine end to our fine day.
He trusts me only enough to get 50 meters of it before he started swerving into the street into traffic. And those cars - those drivers, they do not know how to read horse language when a horse is about to bust into their BMW's hood.
Later Ulrike said, "You have it rough, you have no arena, no round pen, nowhere safe to start this young horse, who needs to be started." She kept using the word STARTED and I was ashamed. He's been started twice, once in middle Germany, once last Winter when I boarded him all Winter.
Mag kept stretching over to Ulrike, "Are you the only friend I have in this group? and she would rub his ears, "What's in your head, you, Mag?" He nuzzled his nose into her chest as if she were a good friend.
I insisted that he stay in place where I parked him, a wall between us. But I was not angry at him at this point, I would reach out and touch his nose from time to time.
Ani was in a daze, she didn't seem to mind the conversation, as Ulrike said to me, "It was not intentional, it was panic. I hope that can make you feel better."
I nodded and hugged her.
She would have kept us there, but Ani was soaking wet from the puddle and I wanted to get her home.
Ani's text, "So sorry.".....hurts.
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17 comments:
Couldn't help picking up on Ani having just been his caretaker while you were gone. Has me wondering if something occurred causing him to be fearful of her? Something she may not even realize happened while she was barnsitting? Sure glad she's ok.
Camryn, how observant of you, it could be true. I have no idea. You've seen the photos of her on Mag, and she is the most gentle of riders, she's like a little fly on his back asking him sweetly repeatedly without any intensification of any aid.
But I don't really know her well. She mounted and walked with no issue as before. And then...?? Thanks for taking the time to speculate with me.
Damn, I have no helpful comments, just, that sucks. I know you've worked so hard, but that kind-of panic is pretty hard to deal with.
If you want to feel a little better: I spent a 1/2 an hour going out, and 2 hours coming back (on the same trail) after my 14+ year-old horse, who I've ridden for 8+ years, couldn't put all 4 feet on the floor and had a fit about it. Sigh...
So sorry that this happened to Ani... hope she is ok and perhaps she should be checked for concussion?
I am really curious about the swirls on Mag's head and body. This type of behaviour that kind of comes out of the blue is often on horses that have a certain type of swirl pattern. Would you be willing to post photos of all his swirls?
I had the same thought as Camryn. But all of my horses have to be re-started from scratch after a season off from regular riding. It's like training a green horse every year. It's not until they've gotten past the age of 20 that I've seen any hope that they might be anywhere near where we left off. Even now, though, at the age of 30, Lostine will scream and run circles around me if I take her for a walk away from the barn.
Panic happens. Especially in young horses, especially in young Arabian horses. I witnessed so many unexplained bolting incidents until age 6/7... it is a thing. Maybe he had a weird sensitive moment in his formative months; but as much as you say you can't trust him, he actually doesn't trust people. The big question, of course, is why. But the bigger point is that one thing is really clear from all your blogs: he is trying like HELL to trust. He is giving his everything and he is a bit codependent. Not in a bad way, but he does really rely on the stability of his relationship to you. And that is a tremendous gesture and compliment! But you were away, he is young, he is still a bit facile and unstable (due to youth and circumstance! He is not wacko!!!) so he lost his grounding.
Panic is a thing you can deal with. It requires a lot lot lot lot of patience, which you have. This is surmountable. It sucks that your friend had a face-plant after building up time with him... but... young horse. You were away. Arabian. Who even KNOWS what set him off in sound, weather, mood. Really, who knows. It's not really worth it to pinpoint, because the thing is that you are his rock and he derives all his trust from you. Right now that seems like maybe a kind of flattering drag, but it's a lifetime process. One day, he won't have that panic anymore.
He is a good boy.
Well heck, sorry to hear about her ride on him. Did something really traumatic happen to him at some point that involved a blanket or some other cover on his hindquarters? I can't remember, did the people that you got him from mention anything about why certain things set him off?
Keep plugging. . . Glad you are back!
K.
I had a very similar thing happen to me with my young andalusian in training. New rider, new aids, new weight sensation, new coat in the rearview mirror, and he blew a gasket throwing her into the wall.
Its spring. Horses do funny things in spring.
Sensitive horses arent always good at coping with change (especially in spring). You can work through this.
Keep doing the desensitizing, and consider new riders to be like the rump blanket. A challenge to work through in baby steps.
Never take your sensitive one-person loyal horse for granted. They are a blessing.
What a rough situation. I hope Ani is ok and didn’t get a concussion.
What Sirje said really makes sense to me. He's still young, he's an Arab, it's Spring. Even the Dragon gets booger-y in Spring. She was a complete snort-bucket on our walk this morning and THERE WAS NOTHING THERE, GAHHH.
Although it is reasonable to expect issues in Spring (but they were way, way worse in Winter, as far as his level of tension, esp. in traffic), I have to talk about fabrics.
Mag has a thing about fabrics. In fact, I asked my last trainer (who I lost confidence in), to help me with his fear of towels. Bath towels, wash cloths, Mag hates them. When he's soaked and shivering, and I try to dry his coat, he's afraid of the towel. So we worked on it. Tarps and umbrellas are less worrisome to Mag than a bath towel being rubbed on his neck. But there is something there, and there is no way for me to know why fabrics upset him, when he's so good at other things like ear clipping, spray bottles, and being left tied. Then again, he kicks the farrier tools across the barnyard, and he's done the same to me, even kicking at bushes that touch him in the woods. Regardless of weather, there is some explosive screw loose in his mind. He's the perfect candidate for TTEAM body work, which I do, but again, like sacking out, if he's expecting it, he's fine. It the unexpected sound or touch that sends him out of control.
Shirly, Mag's whorls (body-wide) are on his passport as identifying marks so that will be easy to share with you.
NM, before her second fall, Ani insisted on doing some sacking out with her rain cape folded into a ball, and it was clear it was the fabric - and she discovered it was worse when she put it on his back. "It's where he cannot see it that he's most afraid!" she said. As I watched her I saw that she couldn't believe how scared a horse could be of a handful of rain coat, he was terrorized but holding it together. I eventually took it away from her and led Mag with it, with me walking backwards, him following, so that he was "chasing" it away, making it less terrifying. But there's no curing that in one day.
Duchesnay, "new riders as 'new fabrics'" - I hope you're right. I promise I appreciate his affection for me - it's something a neighbor noticed as we walk by her house. It's been 11 months since he panic-kicked me.
Sara, funnily, my sister gave me a helmet to give Ani after reading my blog a few weeks ago where I ranted about ill-fitting helmets, and today Ani texted me, "I'd love to keep it, thank you so much." !!! Yay: ) It's a 10 year old Troxel which has seen only one use, kind of old fashioned, but fits her better and is very comfortable. So glad she wants it! I was able to convince her her old one did not fit, based on how it perched on the tip of her skull.
Oh, and if I forgot to say it, this week Mag has been excellent in traffic again, back to his old self. Busses, semis, bicycles coming up on his butt, garbage trucks, all fine, he doesn't even notice them blasting by. One particularly noisy semi with a backhoe on it made him flinch, but he wasn't whirling around me like he did this Winter. We were out three times this week and he was the calmest I'd seen him, even walking 6 feet behind me, head down like an old cow horse, just enjoying being out.
Aarene, that is exactly what S1 said, "We don't ride Tinkers or Haflingers, B." (Tinkers are what Americans call Gypsys.) I'm starting to understand her philosophy of not riding at all in Winter. Her horse (from the same dealer as Mag, from Hungary) must be restarted every Spring. And TP waits all Winter as well to start again, having that fancy arena and round pen of her own (She has invited me to visit her tomorrow - without horse, I insisted).
TP said, "Mag is getting his revenge on you for leaving him for 2 weeks."
*blink* *blink*
My opinion is Mag has a gaping hole in his training which I was unable to fill, and/or he's got a screw loose. Either way, I'm not sure how to proceed.
My horse is the same with fabrics, with a strong phobia for anything plastic including shavings bags. He has however been able to decipher the plastic grocery bags that contain carrots and he definitely wants a piece of that. I can usually make him work through the fear, but his first response is usually “no way, im outta here”.
I can tell you, in my case, that there was no previous trauma as no one has ever touched him or trained him aside from me.
There are several holes in my training. Sometimes out of sloppiness or lack of consistency/repetition. My horse is also SOOO bonded to me that his trust/faith in me has us taking the occasional shortcuts. He will really seem to quickly learn something and so we move on. A professional trainer would not take this for granted. So when I come back to it a few weeks or months later, we start all over again. Fireworks.
Ive also noted his reactions are more intense when I am out of sorts. He reads me like a compass. So when Im not feeling perfect, we just hang out and groom. Maybe go for a walk. Chill out.
The beauty of the sensitive ones is they are often very cautious about where they put their feet, which makes them fantastic with trail obstacles. It might take them longer to learn the lesson or overcome their fear, but they will never be clumsy. And you dont have to nag.
They are always willing.
And if you want a new idea, have somebody else sack them for you. That will help him grow up. That is, if you can let go. I cant. :-)
You probably have, but a good magnesium supplement such as "Mag-restore" might help?
I've been thinking about this post since I read it a few days ago. I have a 3, well she just turned 4, year old young horse I bought in the fall. I hardly rode her through the winter because I don't have an arena and it was very wet. But any time I rode her she was perfect, relaxed, willing, and trying hard. Super green and unbalanced with no steering, but I didn't care because she was so soft and relaxed. The last couple of weeks I've had, by her standards, some bad rides. She's been tense and worried about something, and she's spooked several times. I know that sounds like nothing but this horse has not spooked, even when presented with great reasons, now she's spooking at nothing. I'm trying HARD not to over analyze it. She's young, it's spring, who knows. Maybe she's cycling for the first time, maybe she's finally starting to experience separation anxiety when I remove her from her little herd to ride her, who knows. But a few bad rides don't make a bad horse.
I know Mag has a little more history than my horse, but I still wouldn't put him in the screw loose category, or even label him with a hole in his training you can't fill. You've had a lot of great rides on him, and he's still young and green with lots of riding and experiences that he's yet to learn. But the one thing I do get is that the older we get, the more anxiety we feel when our horses are less than perfect. Ten years ago I wouldn't even be giving a second thought to the few things my horse has done recently.
I think you need to keep doing what you've been doing with Mag, keep exposing him, bonding with him, etc. I do love your idea in your last blog of continuing to ride the Haflinger just to get you feeling confident again, and possibly ponying Mag off him. I think there could be a lot of value for both of you in doing those things.
I am just catching up and am sorry that this happened. Mag is a sensitive horse and he reacts explosively. I know that you have done a ton of work with him and it's really paid off. I suspect that he has become bonded to you and did not know how to deal with someone else. Keep working, as he ages it will improve. You may have to accept that he always may have that in him.
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