She wants to spend our next shared riding lesson attempting it, if Susanne will allow it.
I told her Susanne would not.
I've seen Mag throw Ani violently in a panic, twice in the space of 10 minutes. Throwing her through the fence and galloping on.
She will not give up. She had ridden Mag without incident before.
Susanne said, "If Mag doesn't want her on his back, we won't ask him."
Then (giggle) she forgot what she said and tried to get on Mag herself. That was funny.
Tuesday we find out. I told her I'm not willing to put her on Mag without a "professional" in attendance.
She went out to pet Mag tonight. He asked her for snacks.
We'll see what happens.
I "discovered" his brands yesterday with a razor. Did you see the 7?
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9 comments:
The definition of crazy ... doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
That said, maybe if Ani did some groundwork beforehand and got Mags trust over a couple of sessions, and you stayed nearby and led him while she sat on him ... maybe?
I'll keep fingers crossed. Don't get why though. 🤷🏻♀️
I'm of two minds here. First off, my horse doesn't get to choose whether or not she will work. She doesn't get to choose whether or not she will carry Person A or Person B. If a person puts a foot in the stirrup, she will accept it. She is allowed to have an opinion but she doesn't get a vote. Bucking, rearing, biting and kicking are NOT ALLOWED, and (after all these years) she accepts that.
On the other side is MY responsibility not to hand the reins to an inappropriate person. Who is inappropriate? Anybody who would yank on her mouth, or gallop her down a hill, or aim her at a tall fence and expect her to jump it. If I think a rider will do something that might harm or deeply frighten my horse, that person isn't allowed to ride her (or even feed her a carrot, and there really IS a person who isn't allowed to feed her!).
My job is to give the reins ONLY to people I trust to make good choices for my horse. And her job is to accept my judgement.
My horse, Khanalee, did not like incompetent riders on his back. He knew it immediately. It would only reinforce bad behavior in Mag to allow Ani on his back. I had an older horse that was my lesson horse for beginner riders. Him I could trust. I would never have put a beginner on one of my Arabinans.
ND, good point, but the two times he dumped her, I was holding the lead line: ( Didn't help one bit: ( She has ridden him with great success in the past and believes it was simply her rain coat that startled him. I honestly don't know.
Camryn, : )
Aarene, Ani is overly gentle, so no worries there. Remember the warnings the seller gave me? How Mag threw other buyers? Somehow I got lucky.
KB, wish you were here to evaluate Ani. She is a puzzle for me. Our riding instructor calls her an excellent rider. Excellent?
Well, from the way you have described her, I would not let her on my horse. The horse comes first. Is it worth it to risk the pleasure he’d get in throwing her? You don’t have to “be nice” here. Your first responsibility is to your horse. They don’t forget. Yeah, maybe if she had the know how and could do some ground work with him first, as Nat D suggested, would help a lot. But Ani isn’t that kind of person. Arabians are not for timid riders and they are not for riders who don’t know what they are doing. It’s not that you got lucky with Mag. From the beginning you showed him that you weren’t going to take shit off of him. You set rules and boundaries. Sadly,Ani has no concept of this kind of relationship.
It's not really a question of "niceness". The person who isn't allowed to get near my horse is banned because she is too "nice."
In other words, she is so nice that she allows obnoxious/dangerous horse behaviors because she "wants the horse to like me." Some horses won't take advantage of that, but MY horse finds it *threatening*. Because, if the "don't bite" rule isn't enforced by everyone, her entire world comes apart at the seams, and that scares her. My horse thrives on structure and consistency. She can cope with new stuff, and she does her very best to interpret the mixed signals of newbies and small children, but she hates to have her Important Rules disappear. And that "nice person" would let her do bad stuff! So that person isn't allowed!
KB, I'm afraid I've become the fearful rider you describe. I am acutely aware of the things I won't ask Mag to do, based on my belief he won't want to. *sigh* He's just so twitchy I feel like I'm always protecting him from potential stimulants like a holly bush across the trail. Although I do have the boundaries you mentioned, I'm not secure enough to push his limits yet. I'm faking courage every ride and somehow Mag accepts that and carries me without trying to take advantage of my adrenaline rushes.
Aarene, interesting. Take a look at the videos of Ani riding, although they don't show much. Fiddle is different if she finds passive riders a threat. Would Fiddle still actually try to nip a person? Mixed signals, no signals, most horses click into "beginner mode" and take charge, realizing they must now protect the team. As you've said before. But Fiddle is different.
And Mag is different too. At least for now. God help us.
Fiddle will protect a beginner, yes. But I would never let a beginner work with her unless I am RIGHT THERE, because she will test out some of her bad behaviors, hoping to be promptly corrected--or even corrected slowly (and she can count on my to help a beginner correct her). She would not bite at first, but she will fake-nip sometimes, and expects the correction.
It completely freaks her out when somebody allows her to break the Important Rules. She does NOT want to be in charge of people. It's too scary.
Having the too-nice lady say, (baby-talk voice), "Now now, Fiddle, don't show your teeth at me" is just begging for a Draconic Blowout. I don't need to yell at her as a correction anymore, in fact, I don't have to make any noise at all--I can pin my ears and take a step towards her and she happily defers, glad that I am the Boss of Her!
I'm off to watch the videos.
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