Ups, downs, and puzzles

A week later my bruises had (almost) gone, and I had convinced myself the whole episode was all my own fault. After all, Dara was sweet-natured and obedient, basically. Well, apart from the occasional bits of stroppiness when having his rug put on, or being led back into the stable.....But, he was, in any case, now in the throes of his 'awkward teenager' phase, both physically and mentally. I had to make allowances.... More than anything, I should have reminded myself that Dara was a young ex-racehorse. All his training had been to go-like-hell on the racecourse - nothing about dainty, well-mannered hacking round country villages. Gingerly I continued our daily rides. Dara was good. No more bucking. leaping and plunging. I - perhaps both of us - forgot about the bit of unpleasantness, and we regained our confidence in each other.

Dara blossomed physically when turned out to summer grazing. And mentally, too, he matured and relaxed. Every day I caught him up, and lunged him for fifteen minutes, and then climbed aboard for half an hour's ridden work. Sometimes we schooled in the field, and Dara finally got it with circles ( even though he was still a little stiff on the right rein, and seemed rather bored by the whole thing.) Other times we doodled around the village lanes, enjoying an outing in the sunshine. Nothing ever went wrong. I was mighty pleased.

But you should never count on progress being permanent, with ex-racehorses. Winter approached, and Dara came back home to the stableyard. And within a month he's done it again. The full buckaroo thing. This time I stuck on for six bucks and he landed me in the school shavings - so at least he didn't go runabout down Main Street again. And this time I put it down to naughtiness.

There had been no cold wind, no standing about. We were just walking a large circle, as so often, in the home schooling area. Dara was fresh - being stabled, now, and corn-fed. And I no longer had the large paddock space to turn him out every day for the giddy gallop-round he so enjoyed. But that was no excuse ! Was it ?

Even so, I reviewed everything, looking for a possible cause. ( Even daft young racehorses are usually only naughty for a reason.) Firstly, I altered Dara's feeding, cutting out the corn, reducing the sugar beet, and adding more fibre. I had his teeth checked again, to see if there was any discomfort there that might trigger his 'episodes'. I had his saddle checked too, to make sure it still fitted and hadn't started to pinch anywhere as he gained weight and muscle. But all was well in all these areas. He was not in any way unsound, or unwell. So what on earth was causing these sudden wild outbursts ?