This month my daughter Keara is beginning her horse lease for the cute little Arabian gelding named Galahad. This is an artsy photo I took of his eyeball. Does it look like a kind eye to you? This is the big question for the day. It must be asked because yesterday instead of going out to visit Galahad for our first day of being his part-owner, we went to the hospital to visit the girl that he bucked off Sunday night.
She broke her ankle in three places. She had surgery to put it back together and now has a plate, some screws and a couple of pins. All the hardware will come out in 6 weeks or so. She will be able to walk, run, ride, etc. again eventually.
Ok, I'm freaking out. But then again, it would be very easy to say, "There is no way my daughter is getting on that horse now." And then we could find another horse to lease and assume that this new horse is "safer." BUT that would not necessarily be true.
Still, can Keara ride this horse effectively? Will he work for her in a controlled manner? Has he just learned a neat trick that he's going to try out again sometime in the future? He bucked at the end of a long ride, after cantering over a pole--something that Keara will not be doing this year--how should that be considered?
I don't want to blame the horse. But I don't want to make excuses for his behavior either. This afternoon we're going to visit him. Keara will do some ground work. I need to get eyeball-to-eyeball with this animal myself before I can decide anything.
Yikes, I would be asking myself all the same questions you are. Since my daughter is only three and I haven't been faced with this yet, all I can tell you is to go with your gut once you get eyeball to eyeball with him this afternoon. Good luck and keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteI'd ask a lot of questions to try to find out what caused the horse to buck. I have a horse that bucked me off once, but never again. It was due to a series of rider mistakes in conjunction with a slipping saddle. Any horse would have lost it under the circumstances. On the other hand, this could be a horse with a history of dislodging his riders. It is odd that it happened after a long ride.
ReplyDeleteIt's good that you are reserving judgment. Any horse can buck. That he bucked after a jump might indicate that the rider stiffed him in the mouth upon landing or smacked him hard in the center of his back on landing. Some horses are saints about this kind of thing but some aren't. Like NM above, I'd want to know more.
ReplyDeleteThat's your daughter you're putting up there. I say "no." No, no, no. there are a lot of good horses out there whose previous riders went home at night, not to the the hospital.
ReplyDeleteYour daughter appears to be young and inexperienced. This horse may take advantage of that. And when that starts happening, the best that can happen is that she learns to rise to the challenge. The likely thing that will happen is that it will scare her and if it doesn't make her lose interest, it will keep her from having fun. And the worst thing that could happen is that she gets hurt.
There are so many good solid horses and ponies out there, especially in this economy. Put her on one of those. Keep her safe. She doesn't need to be a guinea pig. Yes, the horse might never do it again. Let somebody else, somebody older and more experienced, find that out.
We had a similar dilemma and I wrote about it here. http://www.smellshorsey.com/2008/07/the-proposition.html Ultimately, I decided that my daughter was not the one who needed to work out the problems on this horse. I do not regret this at all.
Good luck!
One more thing. If the horse bucked after a pole on the ground at the end of the ride, that seems to me a sign that something is hurting. While that might make his buck understandable and "forgiveable," and even potentially treat-able, it does not change the fact that there is a girl in the hospital whose abilities may be forever changed by the breaks in her ankle. And what will happen when your daughter progresses to crossing that pole on the ground?
ReplyDeletePut her on a horse who does his job, lets her focus on learning to ride and gives her confidence and safety.
If this were a horse of extraordinary abilities and your daughter was an "A" rated Pony Clubber, we'd be talking something different.
I don't see any reason for this risk. I'm sorry for whatever caused the buck and I'm sorry for the previous rider.But it is not your daughter's job to "rescue" this horse's reputation -- or to give him a chance to prove it wasn't a one-time thing.
Sorry. I'll shut up now. I've seen my daughter's horse come flying out of the woods without her. (Worst feeling in world.) I've witnessed a million other falls. Her horse bucks after jumps because that is the moment when she doesn't have control. She's learned to anticipate it and knows how to deal with it. He bucks because he can. It hasn't been any fun, though we love the horse and we say he's taught her to ride.
She would have had far more fun on a horse that didn't do this, and we're lucky she's only had one concussion.
She would also have had a better chance to practice her position and make faster progress if she weren't having to deal with her horse's bratty behavior.
We're keeping him because she's advanced to where he almost never bucks (and it was never a spectacular, rodeo buck, but it was big enough to send her flying) and when he does, she knows what to do. But in retrospect, I wish she'd spent her time learning the finer points of riding, not surviving.
Thank you everybody for your help on this! Keara and I had a talk last night and she confessed she's really afraid to ride Galahad. So it doesn't matter what the horse is up to, she's just not in a position to be an effective rider on him, which would be bad for both of them. And as smellshorsey said, she's young and inexperienced, and won't have fun. The good news is we're able to use another, more experienced horse that she trusts. Now guess who volunteered to play "riding student" on ol' Galahad? Why didn't I just keep my big mouth shut!
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