Thursday 10 December 2009

Explosion

Well, after two weeks of not riding I was so looking forward to riding on Saturday. Jas was riding a young Section D so we took him out of the yard to a safe place to mount. No problems there - a couple of circuits round the circle and he was settled. Back to the yard to get on Santana who had been patiently waiting, already saddled. Up we get and ... suddenly I'm sitting on an exploding horse. Equally as suddenly I'm sitting on the concrete of the yard. Not the best start to a nice quiet hack.

He's never done that before - even when we were breaking him in in the Summer of 2008 he's not given the slightest inclination that he might buck. We checked his tack and there was nothing wrong there. We took him out of the yard to lunge him before I had another attempt (with someone holding him this time). He was a little tense at first but soon relaxed and we were back to 'normal'.

I have no idea what caused him to explode like that, but it has certainly made me wary. I didn't ride on Sunday because my old bones were aching from landing on the concrete and Santana was drenched from the rain. Not a good combination in the circumstances.

I shall definitely be lunging before I get on him this weekend and I'll try not to make excuses not to ride.