This view is from the back of another bay Thoroughbred! This time we have video of Xena hacking around in the front field with me and Mahzi the dog. Xena did well handling cars going by on the road, watching her friends in neighboring fields, and generally enjoying her walk around out in the open.
We had a little discussion at the beginning of our session today when I was tacking her up and she said the saddle wasn't right. Her very expressive way to tell me something was amiss was to rear up in the air when she felt the girth being fastened. I acknowledged something was wrong and asked her what needed changing. In response she proceeded to tap the saddle flap with her nose. I took the equipment off and rechecked everything. She has gained some weight and topline/back muscling since she arrived nearly three weeks ago, and so she needed a different half pad underneath the saddle than the one we used last week. I switched it out for a slightly thinner one and Xena then stood perfectly still for tacking and fastening the girth.
Last week we had a similar experience when I was distracted and accidentally put a smooth leather girth on her instead of the sheepskin lined girth. She reared and struck out as I was fastening it. I didn't realize right away why she was behaving this way, so I took her down to the arena. When I went to tighten the girth one more hole before I mounted she reared again, then turned her head and shoved the girth with her nose. I finally realized it was the wrong girth, and sent a friend up to grab the correct, soft fuzzy girth. I removed the offensive leather one and replaced it with the fluffy one, and then Xena stood quietly while I fastened everything and got on.
I'm so grateful for the creatures throughout my riding career who have taught me to listen to the horse's opinion. If I didn't know to look for these subtle things, like her back muscling changing a fraction of an inch, which necessitated a saddle pad change, I might think Xena was being feisty or grumpy. Fortunately I'm able to interpret what she is saying and can make the necessary changes before her opinions escalate into more dangerous behavior.
She's a technical horse in every sense of the term. From needing certain brushes that won't bother her thin-skinned body (otherwise she kicks), to needing her tack carefully assessed at every ride (or she rears), to insisting I cue her with the merest whisper of a weight shift (or she bolts), Xena demands one hundred percent of the human's attention the entire time she's being handled. If she thought I wasn't listening to her, her angry behavior would get more and more pronounced until she became quite dangerous. Xena quickly becomes a horse using bad behavior as her way of shouting at the human to LISTEN TO ME! However, when all the stars are in alignment and everything is perfect, Xena is a phenomenal sporthorse.
It was fun for her to be out with the dogs and look at both the neighbor's llamas as well as the other horses.
She did take a moment to ponder how odd the round pen looks from the outside!
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