Hauling Out During the Storm

Well we just had a big storm here in the bay. My arena did a really good job holding up, it started raining on Saturday afternoon and I managed to ride Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday before it rained all day Wednesday and Thursday. 

That was fine, because it was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! But on Friday, it was not raining, but my arena was too wet to ride in. 

I've been really wanting to stick with our rehab schedule, so I decided to try hauling over to the nearest barn with a covered arena and seeing whether I could at least get SOME work out of TC. 

That was a BAD idea. 

I can't remember the last time he stood
at the trailer and reared and reared

This is the same covered arena as the neighbor arena to his breeder's barn. A barn he has not... loved to work in. But he was FOUR at the time. I figured he was a full ten years older now and that he would be fine. He wasn't. 

Honestly, I don't blame him. He's pretty fit right now and he'd just had two days off, locked in on his paddock (vs having access to his 1+ acre pasture). Then I stuffed him in a trailer to go somewhere that wasn't the vet, which he hasn't done in over a year. And then when he unloaded, there was not a horse in sight. 

Then I tried to leave him tied at the trailer to go sign a release form and put the ring fee in their box.

This was how he unloaded

I ended up instead taking him over to the box to drop off the release form and money and that was a bad idea since he then really started to panic. 

After that, I thought that getting him to walk over to where he could see some horses was a good idea. It was in that, once I managed to get him over there, he was the calmest he had been all day. But that wasn't saying much and he still was completely losing it. 

Standing as narrow and as tall as he
possibly can

In the past, I would have tried to work him through it, but I didn't want to risk anything - his potential neck stuff, my safety, the trust we've developed between us again. He's 98% really the most perfect creature, there's no reason to "work through" the 2% of the time where he's losing his goddamn mind. 

I ended up just carefully flying my horse shaped kite back to the trailer and stuffing him into it. He threw himself against my trailer until we were back on the main road, and three minutes later we pulled into the ranch. He stared at me through the window with the whites of his eyes showing, but then quietly unloaded and was totally back to normal the moment he had his feet on the gravel. 

I think he's convinced that we experienced a collective nightmare or something. I got him out a little later that day to brush him and do some bodywork stuff with him. He was super quiet and relaxed in the cross ties, even yawned a bunch. 

I can't emphasize enough how quiet
this horse is generally, this umbrella
flew into him and he was so excited

I think I made the right decision. If this were a pattern for him, sure, I'd have done something about it. But this was a freak thing. 

I do think I'm going to bring Sundance over next time, or coordinate with the trainer there to go on a day where there are quiet babysitter type horses being ridden in the covered arena. The barn is not a particularly bustling place in the winter, so I don't blame him for thinking that I took him to a haunted barn or something. I figured he'd be fine since he's willing to go to the trail facility all by himself, but he's also been there a lot more. 

Anyway, I think we'll stick to road walking on the days my arena is too wet to ride! Luckily for me, the very next day, my arena was fine.