On Saturday my husband was supposed to have a riding lesson with Eugene’s trainer. She wanted to evaluate his riding ability before having him ride Eugene. Which is fair enough, but then her riding horses were lame so we had another ground work lesson. I did learn that she has been riding him though so at least that’s getting done.
We have been going to visit him without the trainer there on Tuesdays and that’s been really helpful. He’s getting more used to seeing us. I think he’ll do better at our barn as then he’ll be forced to interact with lots of other people instead of just seeing the trainers.
Since they weren’t riding, my husband and the trainer did some work on exposing Eugene to bikes. She’s been riding one around him, but was able to have my husband work with him and direct him to approach and follow the bike.
He was initially suspicious, but was willing to follow it around after a bit of persuasion. They even ended with the trainer riding it around and ponying him. He’s very skittish and initially spooked by everything (and I do mean everything), but the trainer said he’s generally pretty mellow and lazy. So he might be scared, but he’d rather just do whatever he has to do rather than throw a huge fit. She thinks he’s a good boy.
This week, we took a hat and a jacket and exposed him to them. The hat was initially terrifying, but we quickly got him over than and even reached the stage of being able to put it on him. Unfortunately, I missed getting a picture. He was good about the jacket too. Interestingly, he was more terrified of me standing outside the arena with the jacket than he was of my husband sacking him out with it.
Which really goes back to my thought that he needs to be exposed to more people. He kind of knows me, but I don’t handle him and he’s much less trusting of me than he is of my husband and infinitely better with the trainer.
He got some grazing time after all that work and then we measured him for a bridle. I actually anticipated him freaking out about us running the measuring tape all over his face, but he didn’t care at all. So that was great. It looks like he’s going to be an oversized for endurance bridles though so we’r going to have to custom order one. I was really hoping to be able to pick one up quickly, but oh well.
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Aww he's so cute! I'm glad he's doing well over there (and being ridden now). It's funny what they care about vs what doesn't seem to phase them, sometimes it's not what we'd expect. I like the idea of riding a bike around him, I might have to do that with TC. He's always been okay around bikes but he does get a little nervous.
Nilla and Shasta have been fine with bikes on the trails, but I'm not sure I could pony them off a bike. At least, not without a ton of work first.
So cool – I'm so excited to hear the progress with this new guy. He seems so cool.
My mountain biker husband would LOVE to be a bike helper like in this post–help train horses that bikes aren't big deals. Good job, Eugene. So adorable.
He's coming along.
Our horses are ok with bikes on the trail, but some of the bikers around us are a-holes and come flying around turns on single tracks. Our horses will tolerate a lot, but when the bike is actually going to hit them, I don't blame them for trying to get away.
That's too bad. I have been out on about a dozen trail rides so far since moving Knight to the new barn (a year ago). I have been so impressed with how courteous and respectful the mountain bikers we've bumped into have been. They pull over to the side and wait. They wish us a nice ride, etc. The last group that waited for us had a guy who even commented, "It's nice to see you're wearing protective headgear." I was impressed.
We do meet mostly nice mountain bikers. It's just the few bad apples that ruin the batch. There was a case here a few years ago where kids were mountain biking on a trail that bikes aren't allowed on. They ran into a horse and the horse fell of the side of the trail down a steep cliff/ravine. The rider broke her back and was helicoptered out. The horse was injured requiring a lot of vet care/stitches and spent a night in the park before she was found. The other rider begged the bikers to stay and help or to go get help since there wasn't cell service there. They fled and were never caught. This is the sort of thing I worry about when riding here.
He has such a cute face!