Taking Solo to Bruce Davidson and asking for his help has always been an option. Bruce Davidson has been a coach, mentor and role model for Selena since she started having lessons with him at age nine. Bruce is a tough, no nonsense trainer – it’s sink or swim, nobody is ever rough but the horse is expected to work hard. The horses are considered to have a job to do, they are worked firmly but very kindly, almost never with a whip but always with demanding exercises that stretch the horse’s physical and mental prowess, and demand obedience.
I think it might have been the “obedience” part that hinted to me that Solo was ready for Bruce. We did not take him more than a few times last year and in all fairness, we were not having any real problems. Last winter Selena and Solo had several lessons with Bruce and all was going well. He was placing in all his events and had won the “Smoothest Cross Country of the Day” at Plantation, at the Training level in the Spring. Our problems started in earnest when he had gone three months without a competition and he came back on course napping and spooking – anything but going forward off the leg! We have worked him very aggressively since then as you know, and felt that all was going well. We had already decided to take him to Bruce for more lessons and any advice or help he could give us.
So…….on to Florida…
When the second load of horses had been hauled to Ocala, I stayed on for a week to ride and enjoy the sunshine. Of course my first pick was to ride Solo every day I am there, he is nothing if not a Rolls Royce… or maybe a Ferrari… I had a wonderful ride, I did notice that his canter in particular was a bit slow, but other than urging him a bit, I paid little heed to it… I paid for my sins the next day!
Next Day… Solo is quiet and calm, I get on and start my circles, turns, figure eights, the stuff we had worked on the day before. Solo is a bit stiff, yesterday had been his first day of work under saddle since he shipped, he had been on the first load and had ponied and lunged. They arrive in Ocala in the AM and have that day and the next day off. Then they have a loosening day, then they do some work… yesterday had been his “do some work” day. Today was more of the same, then he was to ship over to Bruce’s and be ridden there. WELL!!!!! There I was, smug as it is possible to smug it, trotting around on the most obedient horse you ever rode. Quiet, solid trot right from the beginning of course, I did notice he was a tiny bit slow, but I put it down to his being a bit stiff… therein lies my big, big, BIG mistake. I came floating round the turn (bit like the day, long, long ago, when he bucked me off in a oner) feeling like God’s gift to the horseworld and the next thing I knew, my world was going up, down and sideways in rapid succession in a series of very athletic capriole type movements. He scared the living daylights out of me and nothing I could do could keep him going forward and into my circles. I could get him away from the gate but as soon as I tried to go somewhere, the somewhere I went, was back to the gate. Finally… ok this is embarrassing… ugh… finally, I went through the gate and was back in the stableyard like a little kid on a naughty pony…
OK, I know my limitations, I couldn’t even keep my butt down in the tack, he was popping me a foot up in the air with each little series of spring, leap, kick out, land… and again…
However, he was no match for Selena who got on him and kicked and scolded him around the arena until he behaved. But it was not because he ‘gave in’ as much as ‘knew he was not going to win this particular battle’. Understandably, I was not in photo mode while this was unfolding… humiliated by my own favourite horse is where I was. So… next day we took him to Bruce and said HELP PLEASE HELP.
