Sign, Sign everywhere a Sign

Just like the song says, there are signs everywhere. Unfortunately they don’t do you any good if you don’t read/listen to them.

Let’s go backwards to Friday night………………………

Friday I had Chase ride Max in the RP so he could get used to the feel of him trotting and loping. I was going to let Chase use him at the show on Sat. instead of Abby and didn’t want him trying to stay on buy squeezing with his legs. He did really well. Max was hesitant to lope and kept coming towards me but all of the horses do that in the RP.

I decided to jump on Abby and ride her a bit to see if we could work on some of her separation issues. I rode her down the road a little ways and then came back and worked her around Max. Of course she had no issues (they seem to stem from the other horses leaving her not vice versa). We worked on WHOA and she’s a long ways from there! We did have a ground breaking moment though as she didn’t throw her head at the lope but just loped like she’s supposed to.

Saturday MIL came over and we banded up Sis’s mane and got her ready for the show. We hauled over and I braided Max’s mane (I took him in English Pleasure). MIL rode in the Miz Queen contest (for members 40 and over) and won. She was so thrilled until she noticed that her prizes consisted of Depends, Ben Gay, etc. She also got to wear around this big fluffy crown all day (sorry I couldn’t find my camera).

I took Max in for English Pleasure. I was asking questions from seasoned English peeps before the class but I wasn’t too worried about placing. Max did great except he was listening to the announcer and not me! Going clockwise I felt him lose his lead in the back but he quickly got it back and the judge apparently didn’t notice. We placed 1st. I’d woo hoo it but there were only 3 in the class and the one gal didn’t get her leads right.

Then we had a quick tack change as Chase’s walk/trot class was next. Ty was in his stroller playing in a bucket of water while I was swapping saddles. Somehow he managed to pull the stroller over and he took a head dive into the bucket. When he came back up he had blood all over his face. Spazmasta boy Chase went into panic mode. MIL thought he’d broke a tooth but it was just a bloody nose.

We finally got Chase up and in the arena. He was doing fine until they asked for a trot. Max started off nice and slow but you could see him increasing speed quickly and pretty soon he was in a canter. I yelled at Chase to do a ORS and he did and brought Max back down to a walk. In the line up Max wouldn’t stand still. Chase was trying to flex him but his foot was back so Max was yielding his HQ instead. I finally told Chase to dismiss himself from the class.

He had a look on his face (I thought he was mad at me) but when I finally got it out of him he said Max had scared him a bit. I decided to put him on Abby for poles and barrels. We already knew the worst she’d do was toss her head at the end but she’d ignore Chase’s leg cues.

MIL placed 2nd in walk/trot and then had me take Sis in pleasure. We didn’t place (not sure why) but that’s ok. The adult classes were HUGE! There was no room on the rail to move at all.

Chase went in and did his pole pattern with Abby and it was going great! It was the best run they’d had all year until…………. Instead of turning for home he started to weave again. He stopped, thought about the pattern and then came home the way he was supposed to but it took off from his time.

Then it was my turn. Max and I headed down to the end of the pattern and turned to weave. I all of the sudden had drunken horse who refused to weave the poles but instead kept throwing his head and trying to shoulder into them. We made it through, turned for home and half way home he blew! He bucked and I came off. I rolled a few times and when I came up to where I could see what was going on he was still bucking around the arena and I mean bucking! One of the members got him caught, I re-adjusted my saddle and we did the pattern again. This time it was smooth and perfect.

I took him out of the arena and over by the trailer and did some bending exercises. I didn’t want to discipline him per se for bucking because I think something is physically wrong with him. That’s just not his personality. But at the same time I didn’t want him to think it was acceptable either.

By this time Chase was in doing his barrel pattern on Abby. MIL said they did great and I looked up long enough to see Abby loping home with her head up and ears perked forward (no head tossing).

I unsaddled Max and scratched my barrel class and started looking him over. He had some swelling on the inside of his back right hock. Was that enough to cause his bucking fit? I don’t know. We headed home and I put some DMSO on his leg and gave him some bute.

I’m fine. The biggest thing hurt was my pride. There is nothing like getting dumped hard in front of your peers. My left leg is sore. For those of you who remember me going into the concrete wall with Buddy I think I re-injured that but other then that I just have a few some muscles. It was pretty soft ground and I was able to hit with my shoulder and roll.

Yesterday when I checked Max his hock was still swollen (although he doesn’t appear to be lame or sore). I have a call into the vet today to see if we can get him checked out.

Hindsight’s 20/20 after the fact but I think Max presented us with plenty of signs. They just weren’t clear enough for us to read. I think his final sign was his way of saying “can you hear me now!”.

First his cross firing going clockwise, then his misbehavior with Chase and I’m sure there were several others we completely looked over. I don’t think this was a disrespect issue at all (I’m sure some will think it is). Max has only ever kicked his feet up once with me since we’ve owned him but he has never bucked. Also, most horses that I see buck to get the rider off quit once the rider is off. They don’t take a full lap around the arena at a buck just for shits and giggles. If Max was typically a pushy, disrespectful horse I could see it being a training issue but he’s not.