5/8/10 Romeo Argues, and Ransom’s Tantrum

I grabbed Romeo after a fairly stressful day, running errands, gathering grain, and even going to work. Yup, work, on the weekend. I saddled Romeo up, got him to the arena, and hopped on. Ransom found a loose spot in the arena fencing, and wandered into the arena. I hopped down off Romeo, laid the reins over the fenceline, and told him, “Whoa”. Normally, this works. (who else is laughing now, and saying to themselves “She said normally, uh oh!”) Romeo and Ransom quickly took off, at a gallop, running, bucking, farting, kicking, all around the arena. I couldn’t catch either of them.

After about ten minutes of complete chaos, I finally got Romeo’s attention with a sharp “Whoa!” I grabbed the reins, and took Romeo to his own pasture.

Romeo had plenty of git’up&go, too. For well over 45 minutes, we got walk/trot/canter, goofiness. I got some bending at trot work in, nice tight circles, a few turns, and a handful of rollbacks & side passing. I finally got the canter down to something I could easily ride & manage.

Took Romeo back to the trailer to unsaddle, and I saw Ransom pawing & laying down squirming a fit. Got Romeo to his stall, and apologized for not hosing him off. I looked across at Ransom, who was standing up, in his stall, pawing and pawing more. I quickly took Ransom to the round pen, and got him trotting & cantering. He had his tail up almost the whole time, I can hope he was passing gas. After about ten minutes of that, I started hand walking him down the road. Part way down the road, he started grazing, grabbing up huge mouthfuls of grass. I locked him up in the paddock, gave him water only, and supervised. Finally, I found a pile of pretty solid poop. His supper portion Saturday night, and breakfast Sunday morning were both reduced just in case.

What I think happened --- Ransom is used to a work schedule. He normally poops right after I turn him out after work. Without the work, he wasn’t on an exercise schedule. Without the work, he wasn’t sweating, so he wasn’t drinking as much. Change the schedule of work, and we apparently directly impact Ransom’s digestive system.