I know the history of Griffy is somewhat exhausting, so TLDR; He was lame on and off for the last 4 years, up until this past summer.

I don’t remember when but he developed a habit of not standing at the mounting block. I would position him there, and then climb up, and he would take a few steps backward so that he could clearly see me, and raise his head & peer up at me. I would walk laps around the pasture with him, repeating this same dance over and over. It would take me forever to get on, and I was so upset – I felt like he didn’t want me to ride him, but I didn’t understand why. Thinking back on it, it feels like he was practically screaming that he was uncomfortable, and I just couldn’t hear it.

After he was lame for the last time and ended up getting almost a year off, when I went to get back on it was more of the same – I would lead him over, he would step back to look at me, and I would get down and lead him around and try again, getting more and more upset in the process.

One of the keys to affirmative training is to take the emotion out of it. Anna Blake always says the phrase “Not that I care.” “Why don’t you step up to the mounting block, not that I care? Why don’t you stand still, not that I care?” Your horse knows when you are upset and frustrated. When you get upset, there’s danger that you will start making poor decisions (pulling on their face, being harsh) and even if you don’t, the point of affirmative training is it to be light and airy and make it something your horse enjoys. If you’re about to burst into tears at the mounting block because you think your horse hates you now, well, probably neither one of you is having fun.

One day we were doing some mounted archery work in the arena. Since it was still during his time off, we were on the ground, but we were introducing the other horses to it and Griffy was an old hand. So I led him around, shooting arrows, until someone suggested I shoot over him by standing on the block. I climbed up to the 2nd step and he instantly got anxious. I finally figured out that maybe he had developed anxiety around the mounting block because riding had become painful for him. My trainer at the time helped me work with him – first, I started every session by going into the pasture, sitting on the mounting block, and petting him when he came up to me. Eventually I’d climb on the block, scratching his back and giving him treats. He’s smart enough to know, though, that I’m not going to get on when he’s just out there with no tack on, so he wasn’t really worried. Still, it was good for him to be around it, so I invented a game I called “No Escape From The Block” where I’d take it out into the pasture and sit on it while he grazed. Whenever he moved, I’d pick up the block and move with him. He didn’t love it, but he’ll tolerate a lot for grass.

When we were (finally) cleared to ride again, we did more work where I’d tack him up, get on and off the block, lead him around, and just generally try to create experiences where the block wasn’t scary. It took a while, but we finally got it to where he would stand quietly and let me get on.

Looking back I see where I was missing the obvious – he was absolutely telling me that it was uncomfortable to ride. I was listening more to the vet and other people’s opinions instead of his, and that’s my bad. But he’s been so solid since we moved back in May that it was a big surprise when Monday morning I went to climb on the mounting block…and he took a few steps back. Surprised, we looked at each other for a minute. C. was surprised as well – I’d told her about this, but it was the first time he’d done it since we got there. I got down and we walked another lap around the arena, then tried again – with the same result.

“What are you trying to tell us, buddy?” C. asked him. If he could have rolled his eyes, he would have – it was pretty obvious.

“Ok, new plan,” I said to her. “Let’s do some ground work.”

She was already walking over to get the ground poles out.

When I was grooming him earlier, I noticed he had a ton of flies on him. C. commented that the cattle flies had come out and they had really been attacking the horses. We theorized that he had bug bites on his back and it was sensitive.

Our ground work session was amazing – we did poles and spears and swords and he was an absolute rock star.

We put equispot on him and decided to give him a couple of days. Today when I got him out of the pasture he had hives and his back was sensitive to the touch. Poor boy is having an allergic reaction to the bugs, no wonder he didn’t want me sitting in the saddle.

So yeah. It sucks that he can’t be ridden right now, we’re doing a course of Benadryl & then Zyrtec and hopefully that will help. But it was nice to be able to hear what he was saying without it being so fraught with emotion.