I took a giant leap of faith, plunged in and bought myself a new horse. After weeks of staring at his Dreamhorse ad, and a few trips to Portland to pick him up, I now own a 16.2 (and growing), bay TB named "Lookatmygramps" or "Space Lord" and finally, "Zim" for short.
After deciding that I couldn't let him pass me up, I called his owner, and arranged to pick him up last Sunday at 1pm. After filling out the bill of sale and writing the biggest check I have ever written (Yes, my new horse is worth 2X my car), I walked Zim out of the barn and towards the trailer.
He hasn't been hauled much, and he was a bit nervous. Tentatively walking up to the trailer, sniffing and looking at the gang of people I had brought with me. In less than 2 minutes, he leaned back, and jumped forward. He hauled quietly the entire way to Seattle, which was a roughly 4 hour drive), unloaded nervously but calmly, and immediately settled into his new home.
I'm not used to such a laid back horse, and hes demeanor is absolutely fantastic. Most 4 year olds I know would be snorty, nervous, hyped up and ignoring manners in a strange place after a 4 hour trailer ride. But not Zim, he walked calmed around with me, was well behaved, settled into his stall (and even figured out his auto-waterer in less than a day).
Yesterday was my first real day working with him. I'd honestly forgotten how strange learning a new horse is. I've owned Penny for 7 years now, and I can't remember not knowing how she will react. So Zim and I spent a good 20 minutes grooming, going over him and figuring out where his scratchy spots are (his forehead mostly - maybe its hollow?), and where his grumpy spots are (in between his front legs). He stood quietly, picked up all his feet, let me put some thrush buster on them, and was quite the gentlemen.
But he doesn't cross-tie.
Urg.
Its been years since I have even known a horse who doesn't cross-tie. So its on my list of things I need to work on.
After our grooming session we walked up to the outdoor arena. I was a bit surprised after how gung-ho he was to jump when I looked at him, that he was terrified of the jumps/poles that were laying out around the arena. I didn't want to overwhelm him, so I dragged out a pole and we walked all around it, until I could tell he was bored, then I made him walk over it. This resulted in me having a leaping jumper on the end of my leadline, so we continued until he could walk over the poles calmly.
Looks like I have a bit of a challenge ahead.
My plan - both undersaddle and on the ground is to get him thinking "forward", no matter what we are walking towards/on, he has to have it driven into his head that when I ask him to move his feet, he moves them (and not backwards). This is a skill that underlies every principle I want this horse to know and I won't push him beyond just basic flatwork until I know that he has that concept down.
Regarding the poles, I'm going to make it a non-issue. I'll set one or two out while I ride him and we will just ride around them, so he gets used to seeing them around. While I work I'll make him walk over them during his breaks so he can start seeing that walking over poles is a boring/everyday kind of occurrence. And I'll start looking for other schooling opportunities to get him thinking forward over "scary" obstacles.
I won't make it out tonight, but I'll have my first ride on him tomorrow night:)
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