The local vicar who is a keen horse rider decided to host a 'church service in praise of horses' today. Although I am Roman Catholic and not a filthy prod (joke, don't freak out) I decided me and the horses needed all the help we can get, divine or otherwise, so we went along for the crack so to speak. My friend Ellen rode Polly (my horse) and I took the big bay TB, Hector who I am schooling to sell for my boss at the mo. Some of you might have read some stuff about Hector before - although he is unraced, he acts very much like an ex-racer - he is very spooky and sharp and funny about things touching his sides. As he apparently includes 'legs' in the list of things he doesn't like to feel on his sides, this makes for some interesting riding at times :) He also has a filthy buck and is funny about his mouth. I suspect his past history is not great.
It was something of a challenge for him as there were a number of horses at the service which was held in a large field. Also, to his great fear, there were serveral horses pulling carriages - beautiful to the human admirers but a source of some nervousness to many of the mounted equines who had clearly not seen anything like this before. Hector did a small amount of leaping about and insisted on keeping the dangerous carriage monsters in sight at all times, despite this meaning I had my back to the vicar for the whole service! However, he was largely extremely well behaved for a sharp, nervous, unschooled horse and the only time he bucked was when I droped my 'hymn sheet' onto his neck - although he could just have been protesting about my horrible singing!!!!
After the service, the mounted contingent set off for a short farm ride which involved a canter up a hill and around a field. Having never taken Hector out with more than two horses before and then just on the roads, I was somewhat apprehencive as to his behaviour when 10 horses set off at a hunter gallop! I was not the only one either, several others were eyeing him with caution as he was being very silly on the first part of the hack and leaping about, throwing his head and skipping sideways. However when the lead horse went into canter, Hector powered forward with enthusiasm but didn't leave my control. In fact he was super - he pulled hard and was keen but I never felt that I was going to lose him. When a horse in front bucked in excitement, he danced sideways but then continued cantering - a great improvement on his usual behaviour when a nearby horse plays up which is generally to start wildly and spin round. In fact, I felt I was riding a racehorse on the gallops, all that power and energy contained between my leg and hand - it was lovely. I suspect now more strongly than ever that even if he has never raced, he has almost certainly done the training as he seemed to believe he was back on the gallops again!
He was immensely praised by everyone for his good behaviour considering how green he is. I'm absolutely delighted with him - hopefully this means I will be allowed to take him hunting over the winter as he really seemed to settle once he was allowed to get going and although he was jumpy and silly when standing about, he never tried to kick out or shoot off. Took him home for a rub down and a bowl of nuts and left him looking very content. I was pretty chuffed with myself too as I think I managed to keep him calm and give him a great experience today and I didn't let his silliness upset me, I just sat quietly and let him figure it out for himself that hacking is FUN not SCAREY.
