You never know how a horse would act until you actually do a ride. My experienced trail horse turned into a monster his second ride and I had to fight him the first half of the ride to make him behave. He still can be a handful when he gets his "radar" on, but he's become a lot more manageble each ride. This is the same horse that packs my inexperienced neice and babysits my greenie on trail rides.
My real greenie started his first LD last weekend very sanely. The controlled start and big hills really helped. BUT: halfway through the ride we got lapped by the fast 50's and the lights went off and nobody was home. I had to lead him all the way back to the next vet check because he was uncontrollable mounted and he was running circles around me all the way back. This horse has been on a few big group rides and behaved himself admirably on each of them. I honestly thought he was ready, but he's not. And he was a little footsore at the first vet check, so I know he's not a barefoot horse candidate. I offered to pull him, but the vet actually encouraged me to go on, just get off of him on the downhills. So not all rides and ride vets are against barefoot horses, folks. Disappointed in the results, but I learned a lot from the experience. We came back safely in good physical condition and that's the most important thing. We could all start preaching about "no greenies" but I've seen and heard about enough people use incredible strategies to get a green horse through rides. All horses have to start someplace, just as all riders have to start someplace. K. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
