Willie or Willie not work out!!

Well I took Willie to our annual CHC Ladies Ride back in August, his first real camping trip, 5 days on his own as I did not have a girlfriend that could come along to ride Oakley.  Which I have to admit was kinda nice just because it saved me the extra work of bringing more stuff and dealing with 2 horses.  Willie was awesome on his highline!  He was next to Bobbie's mare and they got along very well, although Willie never did figure out how to lay down so by day 5, he was tired!!  Many times Bobbie & I watched him darn near buckle and fall over as he stood sleeping.  lol

We got in 3 rides over the weekend and I was very proud of him.  His back was only a tiny bit sore after the 3rd ride too, so I was happy to see that.  We rode last in the pack on our group rides and the gal right in front of me was on a VERY antsy horse.. her horse would not walk a straight line, he was over-amped and was dancing, prancing, trotting sideways.. doing anything but cooperating for his rider.  I was worried Willie would feed off the vibes, but he was steady-eddy and remained calm cool and collected, not one bit phased by any of the antics of the horses in front of him.  I was tickled pink!!!  :)

My drive home, not so happy with him as I realized he was pissed to be leaving his new girlfriend so he put quite a few new dents in my trailer.. He was bucking and kicking in the trailer...  When I got to my parents place (cant remember why I had to stop there on my way home), but anyways, he had the balls to buck/kick right infront of my eyes as I had the trailer door open, so he got his ass spanked while he stood tied in the trailer!  I am realizing he still is not great at standing tied if other horses are out of sight.. he will buck or kick whatever is around him.. definately needs more lessons on that as that is not acceptable!

I did bring Willie back home after the ladies ride to fatten him up, he still has not gained the weight I want him to, after loosing it all in training.  I've been feeding him beet pulp, senior grain and rice bran; it finally is working and he's gained some weight!  He's still a bit ribby, but he looks good.  After the ladies ride, I let him sit for a couple weeks and decided to use him to flag the trails for our club prize ride.  I was worried I had made a mistake as he was feeling fresh on all this new grain, plus he is still a VERY GREEN horse!!  What the hell was I thinking using him to carry hundred of long flowing flags on him...  The young stubborn side of my brain said "Oh it will be just fine"..

As I introduced the ribbons to Willie that morning, his initial reaction was to go straight up in the air, all 4 feet off the ground.. OH SHIT!  What was I in for.... After that initial blow up he seemed to be fine and I put the flags on the saddle horn, got on, and hoped for the best!  And I got about as close to great as I could expect out of him.  He was clearly irritated by the flags touching his legs, he is SOO darn thin-skinned that he feels everything and he didnt like the flags touching him but as long as I kept him moving, he accepted it pretty good.  He was not flaring his nostrils or spooky, he just went with it.. thank god!! 

I actually struggled more with trying to get him in the brush to hang the flags.  It was a 5-hour ride, by the end he was a bit irritated but we had no major spooking, no rearing nor bucking, so it was 100% successful.  I have realized that I am always riding him at the back of the pack so when a horse is behind us, he now gets nervous about that..  so I need to change it up when I ride from now on and make him ride in the middle or front as I dont mind being in the back, but he needs to learn to ride from any position calmly.

So here I have a horse that has been doing exceptionally well with all that I have thrown at him...  we've not been riding as much as we should but I've been so happy with him.  Then Monday night comes along.. I was itching to ride, so I put a Cashel Soft Saddle on him (a friend lent it to me).. basically it is a bareback pad with stirrups, except that when I was riding in it, I didnt feel the stirrups were safe so I did not use them.  I was in the mood to ride bareback, so I fed him his dinner, let him eat all his grain and half his hay, then got on!  Oh I should also mention I put a bit in his mouth too, wanted to try something new.  The sidepull I've been using works great, BUT because of his thin skin, it rubs a raw mark on his nose every time I ride in it, so thought maybe a bit would be better. 

Well apparently this bit was too much bit for him and he was SUPER sensitive, my hands had to be very very light.  As soon as I got on him, I knew there was a 90% likelyhood that I was going to hit the ground.. I could feel it in him as he did NOT want to cooperate.  I was just in the gravel area and couldnt get him to move away from the barn without him wanting to rear or buck so I got off, took him out to the make-shift roundpen and ran his ass off..  he was so full of evergy, I hardly did anything but stand and cluck at him and he just ran...  So when he was good and tired and sweaty, I got back on.. oh much better!  Look who wants to cooperate now.. He was feeling pretty good actually, I rode him out to the round pen but once in there, he said "screw you" and found a reason to spook, spin and jump out from under me.. I was expecting it so I was able to grab his neck on my way down and landed on my feet, but because he was still in spin mode away from me, and I didnt land square on my feet, my ankle landed hard (and poorly) and I buckled and went down.. I heard and/or felt a crunch in my ankle and knew I was down hard.. My body was fine..  but my ankle was in pain.  I called Derek to come help me up and by that evening, I was swollen and in a lot of pain.

I didnt sleep well, it was throbbing and then next morning I could barely walk.  After looking online I am sure I have a partial tear in one of the ligaments in my ankle as it was very tender to touch.  3 days later I can walk on it pretty good but it's still tender and I dont have much mobility and there is still swelling.  My bad though, I knew it was not a good idea but I wanted to ride bareback dammit!  Willie is FAR too sensitive of a horse to handle bareback and FAR too green to ride in his pasture without drama!  So Willie or Willie not work out...  I'm fairly certain Willie will work out in the end, we just have a long road ahead of us and I need to not baby him but accept the limitations of his experience.