Chaos

 Well... today was not what I had in mind. Oh well. 

They came to start on my arena today so the horses were locked in the middle field. I actually only did 5 horses today and finished up and was home by 3ish. Yahoo!!! I was all set to go to Ashland. I was deciding whether I wanted to take both Dan and Funny and hack (Ideally, but I was a little worried about leaving Fleck by himself in the middle pasture with the commotion) or whether I wanted to try to do some dressage with Dan in his regular bridle with no draw reins or german martingale. I checked in with the arena guys. They had gotten most of the fence down and we were discussing the arena mirrors. I ended up getting them to help me get them down, so that Mike and I didn't have to do it later... but that meant I had to unhitch...  Of course then the gooseneck ball wouldn't come out so we ended up putting the mirrors on their flatbed... But that meant that I had to help them unload them when they left, so... I had about an hour. Which meant.... no Ashland. But.. the skies were starting to look sketchy too and by now it was almost 4. So I tied Dan to the trailer and went to tack up. Something spooked him and he pulled back hard... almost fell over his butt.. because while I used the blocker tie... there is a knot at the end of his leadrope so he got it all the way through to the end, but then it held. Sigh. He finally gave and at that point it started raining. Hard. So I gave up and took him back to the barn for a few minutes. It seemed like it would pass quickly as you could see the sun shining. And it did.. And we got a rainbow!! Thanks God. So back out we went. And this time I tied him to the haystring. I tacked him up and we got on. I took him into the field to ride since the arena had equipment and they were moving my mirror posts and stuff. 

He's still unhappy. I even put him in the jump bridle and dressage saddle and just tried to get him to go around like a hunter. He didn't have to be in a third level frame but he had to not be inverted or braced. He fought me. He was fussy. He kept throwing his barrel at me. Of course... he was also worried about Funny because she was in the middle field. And then Jean came riding up, so Funny went running along the fenceline after her horses, which worried Dan. And then the heavy machinery work and moving piles of wood. He spooked and bolted twice. We did get some nice work, but it was seconds of it... between the chaos. Then it started to sprinkle some again. And then I realized that Dan's dressage saddle seemed to be pressing really tight against his withers... right where those odd rainrot/scabbly lesions are. Sigh... guess I'll call Cindy. So then I thought, well... crap.. let's see. I rode back to the trailer and swapped saddles out. Then we went back out. And then it really started raining. So, maybe he was a hair better, but it was so hard to tell because of the terrain and all the chaos. Plus he was still wired and getting a little upset. And there was lightning bolts. So... fine. Uncle. This was stupid. I rode him to the pasture gate and untacked him there and turned him loose. 

 

Sigh... so now I'm not sure what to do. I'm starting to panic that his neck is bothering him so much that he won't even carry himself in a hunter frame now... but maybe he needs to go in a third level frame to build muscle... but am I going to piss him off? Or is he just being naughty and I need to be firm, but allowing?? Ugh...