We Forgot His Hay Again

When Sam brought MJ to the wash stall his legs were muddy. Sam got the warm water going and spent several minutes spraying the mud off all four legs, and there was a good bit of mud.

Then came the cleaning of the hooves, and in between all of this we FORGOT TO GIVE MJ HIS HAY!

He was good as I went over his body with the Haas New Generation curry comb. Debbie finally drove up and took over the rest of his grooming with the Haas Military, Cavaliere and Coat Gloss brushes. As I brushed his mane and head MJ nuzzled me lightly as I passed in front of him, at first I was all happy because this was the first time in over 20 months that MJ gave me this really light nuzzle, but later on I realized that he was politely trying to remind me that we forgot to give him his special flat of timothy hay. The second nuzzle was much firmer, then he dropped the subject.

The riding ring was really sloppy in some places so we wandered at a walk on loose reins snaking around the jumps and the puddles. I practiced using my inside thigh as it went up to turn and MJ stretched his head down for contact. Debbie told me to do the super slow walk again since it helped so much last week as his warm-up.

I started by stiffening my lower leg as MJ's barrel swung out and pushed against my leg. It took a while but MJ finally started shortening his stride calmly, then committed himself to the slower speed while keeping contact with the reins. Occasionally, for a stride or two, I would tweak the diagonal rein to my leg aid, with immediate release, and MJ raised his head a little shifting a little bit of weight off his forehand, then I stopped using rein aids.

This took a minute or two, then it was back to the regular walk with me regularly asking MJ to extend his stride. After a while Debbie asked me to trot to the left. There was enough of a “straight” path to get him moving, after that first trot we walked some and MJ was somewhat looser, then I asked MJ to trot in the other direction. The “path” around the puddles and jumps was not as good, so I got one change of direction and flexion at the trot before I was just too tired to trot anymore.

I rested by walking MJ around, making sure that our contact was good (legs!), occasionally asking his to extend a little bit (grudgingly), while another rider and her horse had to come in the ring to talk to Debbie. All was fine until the lady opened the gate to the ring and led her horse out of the ring as we were approaching the gate. MJ decided he was THROUGH and wanted to go to the barn and get his hay. We had a short discussion as MJ demonstrated his displeasure until I got MJ turned away from the gate, then the other horse was through and the gate closed, end of the problem.

All my previous rides when we FORGOT HIS HAY!!!! MJ essentially sulked all during being groomed poking us with his nose rudely, he would sulk on the way to the ring, and he was not terribly happy being ridden though he was always a good boy. I could tell that MJ was missing his hay the whole ride. This ride was the first time we forgot his hay when we groomed him with the Haas brushes and curry comb. This time his sulking was sporadic, he would be walking along cheerfully, then “hey you FORGOT MY HAY!!!!, then back to walking around cheerfully.

This sort of reinforces my tentative hypothesis that being groomed with the Haas brushes removes a serious irritation from MJ's life, and with one less serious irritation his is better able to stand the irritation of HEY YOU FORGOT MY HAY!!!!! during my ride. I should not have forgotten his hay, but hey, horses have to put up with some irritations when we ride them. I'm just glad that we stopped irritating his skin so much while grooming. This changes MJ's outlook on life as a lesson horse in a big stable. Sometimes life is not that bad, especially when being groomed is a pleasure.

Even when the dumb humans forget the special flat of hay.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran

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