Yesterday was a rather exciting day out at the barn. Due to miserably cold and wet weather, I hadn’t ridden Chance for a few days. He started out pretty fresh and on edge. This is pretty typical for him on a cold day, but he usually settles after ten minutes or so. Yesterday, not so much. He grew more and more tense the longer I rode. I thought to myself, “If he does anything silly I am just going to get off and lunge him.” There was a murderous, psychopathic squirrel sitting on the fence. So, of course he thought we had better get away from it right away. His spook/bolt lasted halfway across the arena. I hopped off and threw him on the lunge line, lunging him the corner he spooked in. He immediately starting bucking and running like a crazy thing.

I always bring my Australian Shepherd, Khloe, with me to the barn. She has been around horses her entire life and is usually really good around them. She likes to hang out by the ring when I ride, just watching. However, she loves chasing them when they are being lunged so I usually tie her up when I am lunging. I did not even think about it yesterday since I started out riding, so she was still loose. Of course she ran over to “help” me. The chasing did not bother me too much since she stayed a reasonable distance away, and he never really kicks at her. Yet, she did not stop there. She then tried to give me a heart by darting in front of him – trying to race him I guess. I was yelling at her and trying to stop him, but he was so wild that I couldn’t and she would not stop. She ran right in front of him, he could not stop in time and literally jumped over her. It was crazy. Needless to say, Khloe got locked in the tack room after that so I could finish lunging him in peace! I was pretty amazed at the lengths he went to keep from stepping on her though!