Maintaining Control

Besides keeping Cappy from roaming the neighborhood, one of the reasons to board him was to start teaching him "crowd control" ~ how to deal with other horses in the ring with him and to learn that their activities really didn't impact him. I figured to start with just Klaus, since they knew each other. M and I saddled up the boys and walked them down to Lower barn.

As M and I rode the boys in the indoor, Klaus was being a good sport about the fact that he was expected to ride up close to Cappy, brush near him, etc. Cappy was a nervous ball of energy, backing off pace despite my applying leg when Klaus came towards him head on. I continued to focus on what our activity was and for the most part ignored Cappy's theatrics. I knew it would take quite a few experiences before he learned that the whole thing was no big deal. He certainly didn't have any big spaz outs, so we considered the ride successful enough for their first introduction to the indoor and went back to the Ghetto to untack and turn them out.

After removing his bridle and buckling on his halter, I snapped the crossties on either side and pulled my helmet off. I placed it and my halfchaps and crop on the ground forward of Cap's crossties and went back to remove his saddle. As I walked to the tackroom, I heard the unmistakable splash of fluid hitting the concrete aisle.

"Cappy, WAIT!" The fluid splish- drip- stopped as I chucked my saddle in on the rack and rushed back down the aisle. Cappy stood stretched out, a concerned look on his face, a dangling droplet still waiting to fall... I snatched up my helmet, chaps and crop and said "Ok, buddy."


The floodgates immediately reopened.




Who says horses don't understand English?

Helmet for re-enactment purposes only. Not the actual helmet at risk.