A funny thing happened at the barn last night.  I brought Cole into the arena to ride with a big TB.  This was only the second time the TB has been ridden since his operation for a cyst in his sinus.  The vet told the owner she could resume riding at 6 weeks.

A few minutes into the ride, she noticed he was doing a strange step every now and then when they were trotting.  I didn’t see it.  He wasn’t lame, though.  She said he would put his foot down hard, and he jut started doing it towards the end of her first ride.  She knew he was trying to tell her something, but this didn’t make sense to her. 

Then I saw it—he lifted one hoof up really high and brought it to the ground.  She stopped him in puzzlement and asked me just what he was doing.  I told Cole to go into his Spanish Walk.  Her horse was taking one step at the Spanish Walk.

Since he was being fussy with his head, the only thing she could think of is that he was having some sinus discomfort, and was displaying it with a foot stomp.  She decided not to trot anymore.  As she walked around and we talked, her horse did multiple steps in a row of the Spanish Walk.  She nearly panicked because he felt so strange.  I showed her, again, what her horse was doing with Cole.  I asked her if it felt like they were going to do a somersault, and she emphatically replied, “Yes.”  I said that’s how Cole felt, too.  I reassured her he wasn’t going to fall.

I taught Cole how to do it on the ground, but it only took one request from sister in the saddle ad he learned it there, too.  I explained to my friend that when Cole does it when I don’t request it I just ignore him and he will stop.  I suggested she do the same.  A few minutes later, her horse tried it again, and she followed my advice.  He didn’t try it anymore at the walk, and she didn’t ask him to do any trotting.

I told her she was lucky that she was riding with me and Cole, and we could show and explain to her what was going on.  After all, I don’t think there is another horse in miles that does a Spanish Walk.

She wasn’t sure what was going on, but he may have figured out that when he did it, she would stop him.  She didn’t know for sure, but she is fairly certain that he wasn’t ready for a lot of riding.

She quit for the evening, and I continued on with my ride.  She came back in the arena to tell me in fun, “When normal horses do that, something is wrong.”  I sighed and said the last thing Cole is, is normal