Ashamed :-(

I have had a very mixed time with Spyke, he is very unreliable at the moment. In the weekend we went to the forest twice. On Saturday we went with Bert and Sarah and did a good 2 hours up and down hills. He was pretty good but for the first half he was spooky and refused to go out in front. At about half way he relaxed and went out happily in front. We had a FABULOUS canter along one of the tracks but then a spooky one along the next. When he got home and was eating his dinner he was spooking at traffic...sigh!!!

On Sunday we went to the forest with a group from the horse forum that I frequent. There were 9 of us all together and Spyke refused to go through a gate so I got off him and lead him through and then carried on to the locked gate. After I had opened it we stood aside to let everyone through so that we could shut it behind them. Well Spyke pulled back AND bucked...Grrrrr. We set off on our ride and he was very good in a crowd but once again refused to go in front. About half way through the ride we had to go up a steep bank and the two horses in front trotted up. Well Spyke let rip with a couple of decent bucks and got really wound up. Fortunately, because he was on a steep slope he couldn't do much. It took him a good 10 minutes to settle again and then he was lovely.

When we got home I lead him off the truck and he suddenly spooked at a recycling bin that he has walked past MANY times before and jumped on top of me. I confess that I completely lost it at that point and hit him repeatedly with the end of the lead rope. :-( (It is a soft lead rope but that was no excuse). However, he should never, EVER trample me. I was pretty upset about the whole thing really as he is just not my Spyke at the moment. My friend Kristina has taken a blood sample and we have sent that off to be analysed to see if there is a lack of selenium or a magnesium imbalance.

I rode yesterday and schooled him very hard. I worked him for over an hour and we were pretty mad at each other by the end. I felt like our 'relationship' had been damaged and that I am a 'bad mother' :-( However, tonight I went up and apologised to him and had a very gentle ride in the paddock. The plan now is to take things quietly until I have the blood results back and then decide what to do from there. We have the WRC dressage this weekend and I am VERY nervous about how he is going to cope with that. We will work through it though and hopefully rebuild our trust in each other. I am absolutely gutted to be suffering from this set back as I was so looking forward to this summer. I felt that we were going to really achieve things this year. :-(

On a nice note, I caught up with Richard, Heather and Dibley in the weekend and have now got a fabulous new cart for the girls. I just need a harness now and we will be able to go carting. Yay!!!!