Quzqo T. Naughtyhorse

Tue Jul 19, 2005

Okay, you Moms with sulky teenage boys, can you give me some advice here? I swear, last night Quzqo transformed into a pouty, sulky, petulant human teenager! Why? Because Mean Mom wouldn't let him eat hay in his stall and took him to the yucky boring dumb arena and was trying to make him do stuff!

He got to enjoy his evening grain, was adorable while being brushed, feasted on carrot chunks and got clicker-trained, but once the saddle was on him and we started for the door, he started drrrraaaaagggging along behind me like a dead weight, dawdling and procrastinating, stopping to sniff the ground, trying to get at the round bales, stopping to look at "something" far away, dragging his feet...I would have had better luck dragging one of those round bales down to the
arena!

Got on him without an argument (for once), had his draw reins on, he dropped his nose to the arena dirt, and would NOT raise it! He wouldn't walk, he wouldn't trot, he kept dropping his head right down to the dirt...nothing there, just sand...no amount of heels or spurs got him to move, a pop (to my boot) with the whip got him to shuffle a couple of steps before stopping and dropping his head. I got off and looked in his mouth, maybe the bit got under his tongue...nope, everything was fine! Draaaagged him back to the mounting block, got back on...down went the head, horse wouldn't move. He was POUTING!

Finally I hauled his head UP, popped HIM in the butt with the whip, and got him moving, and managed to get him walking around the arena at least. There were 4 other horses being worked, so it's not like he was alone! I could NOT get him into a trot! He wouldn't even walk faster, just totally ignored me (spurs and all), wouldn't back up, wouldn't turn, kept dropping his head (I wasn't even using the draw reins, they were just "there", I was using the snaffle rein entirely)...got him into a NICE trot along the rail until he decided to VEER to the right to the middle of the ring! He wasn't spooking, he just decided he wanted to go THAT way! Earned himself a multitude of small circles before returning to the rail...he pulled that around 5 times at various spots in the arena, at the trot AND canter! Little bastard, LOL!

Eventually I gave up, and we went on a trail ride around the perimeter of the farm, and he was fine, a bit draggy, but more enthused about THAT. What a nut!

Bad news for him...Tomorrow night is the fun show at the Fairgrounds, which means he gets to PRACTICE tonight, and no excuses this time! 'tis a sad testimony if he thinks he can get himself labeled "ring sour" after maybe 2 hours' total ring work in a two week period, LOL!

Shall I send him to his room and take away his X-box?