Grassbrook Equine

After many months of being sick, being away, being busy and the weather being crummy...I finally got sick of not knowing what my gorgeous big stallion is like to ride..we started with the usual burr removal, brushing , cleaning, hoof tidying...then saddled him up and then did the lungeing- first in the round yard then out in a bigger area- As soon as you have this horse' ear, you have him.  It is easy to draw his attention, and he is a very responsive horse. 

I finally got tired of safety groundwork, general preflight checks etc (because he had gone to sleep, was resting a hind, and had his nose leaning  on the side of the roundyard)  went and got a kitchen chair, and scrambled on...  His ears went forward, and away we went, sedately around the round yard, so I opened up the gate (off him) and we went out into one of the holding paddocks for some flatwork.  It doesn't take long to determine what sort of horse you have, when you start flatwork.  You have the impatient horse: who tries to canter, no matter how hard you keep him back to a trot, and a reverse means a slightly backwards trot that heads sideways..You have the lazy horse, who cannot fathom that trot may even be in the asking- and don't even think about asking for a reverse!!..You have the "I'll do it for 5 minutes then I'm over it" horse, and he's spending all his time looking outside the exercise area, waiting for something more interesting (this horse is related to the impatient horse) and that interesting is usually either feed or plastic bags..and the plastic bags usually encourage such behaviour as pigrooting & shying- all the while proving that an hour of flatwork will be more beneficial than the horse's feeling of 5 minutes.  You have the horse who grudgingly does as you ask but expects a reward at any point that he even begins to do as you ask, and if no reward is instantly given, gets sulky and refuses to try anything new...and then you have the horse that just calmly accepts that this is riding time, therefore, human time, and heads into any and every request with the same interest that he would give a biscuit of prime green hay....Well, Ong Bak is the latter horse.  All requests, prompts, aides....you ask and he delivers- and the things he doesn't deliver, cause he doesn't know....he picks up fast.  I am incredibly impressed by this big footed boy- he is sweet in the paddock, comes to the call with his big-hoofed, feathery canter, but as a mum to 4, and with more things on my plate than one can poke a stick at, I seriously expected a "bit of a handful" , and it is so amazing that he is not THAT horse.  His movement and handling under saddle is softer again than it is on the ground, and today we will be moving cattle- I know he knows about stockwork; I've seen him watching the cattle longingly over the fence and as soon as the dogs go off at stock movements, he gets as close to that stock as possible.  He watches over the fence and shoulders with great interest, when there is cattlework being carried out in the yards, and I'm really looking forward to heading down the paddock.  His nature is truly one of calm, balanced interest.  I think I may have a new favorite...