Today I had a lesson with a new instructor and she told me that my horse was unsafe and she would not give me a lesson.  Moreover, she recommended I get rid of the horse and told me some grim stories of other students who spent weeks in the hospital due to riding injuries.

Montana was, to be frank, quite bad today.  I brought him to a neighbor’s ring for the lesson, and he was not only in a new area with new horses but he was also away from his buddy Cedar (our other horse).  He was shaking his head, doing half rears, mini bucks, lots of sideways evasions, etc.  He refused to stand still.  He was pretty much on the edge of control and was ready to explode.

I think his main problem is that he’s buddy sour.  He’s always pretty bad when he’s not with Cedar.  There’s probably a submission problem as well, as I’m sure there are herd-bound horses who are upset but able to submit to the rider.  When Montana doesn’t get his way, he’s quite bad, and since he’s an athletic horse who expresses himself through his body, he becomes dangerous.  In comparison, Cedar is always quite safe even when he’s upset because he’s a stoic internalizer.

I must admit that I don’t do much groundwork with Montana, which could help some of the submission issues.  I found groundwork to be a lot of fun when I first learned it with the Clinton Anderson videos, but it bores me now so I find I don’t do it much at all.

Another problem is that he doesn’t have a job.  I find that he’s better after being lunged, or having worked the previous day.  Montana’s a young horse who sits around all day.  If he got regular exercise, I’m sure he would be better.

It seems that Montana has pretty significant issues that are fixable, but the question is whether I have the time, energy, inclination, or skills to fix them.  Or if I’d rather have a Cedar type horse who I can ignore for 4 weeks then hop on for a trail ride with no preparation, which is the type of horse I need, to be honest.

Unfortunately, since this has been going on for a while now, what would likely happen is I would continue to ride Montana on the edge of control on borrowed time, and eventually I will end up getting hurt.  He’s already bolted pretty badly with Elizabeth, and it took her probably 50-100 yards or more to get him back under control.  One time he bolted with me and I put him in a one-reign stop with his nose next to my boot and he ran sideways for at least 20 feet, which I didn’t even realize was physically possible.  So much for the “emergency brake”.  The new instructor today is concerned that he will start more dangerous behavior like rearing.  (I didn’t tell her he’s already reared with me.)

So I think we’ll be going horse shopping in earnest, and if we find a great, good-looking, Cedar type horse then we’ll sell Montana.  If I have the time, I would like to start working wtih Montana with some targeted training for his buddy sour issue, but given it’s winter with poor footing and short days, I’m not sure how realistic this is.