174. Spices Fear of Motorbikes...

Today i decided to hack Spice out around the block where i had been walking her in hand as i thought that she would be fairly confident. However, as luck would have it no sooner had we left the yard we were faced with not one but 2 motorcyclists, a car and a van all at the same time. Needless to say Spice absolutely freaked. She was terrified at the thought of having to pass them without me by her side to show her the way. So, rather than have a big fight in the middle of a road with traffic waiting and a horse already in 'flight' mode. I decided to get off and walk her passed knowing that she would be fine with that. The problem i had was getting back on her. Having a 15.2hh horse and being only 5 foot tall isn't the best combination so i walked her along until i found a field that we could go in which had some higher ground for me to mount her from. However, at this point Spice had decided that she felt much happier and safer having me by her side and kept moving her hind quarters away from me every time i went to mount....Frustration is not the word. All in all i think it took me around 15 attempts to mount her (so definitely need to do some work here) and as soon as i did she let me know she wasn't happy and made it very obvious that she wasn't going to listen to me by attempting to choose the direction we were heading in so i promptly reminded her that i was the one in charge of the direction. However, I could feel her resistance and excess nervous energy with every step so i thought that before taking her back onto the road i needed to do some schooling, figure of 8's, tight circles, backing up, stopping, walking forward and so forth. After roughly 5 minutes of doing this she was putty in my hands and it was like sitting on a different horse. I continued to turn her every couple of minutes all the way home and made sure she was going at a pace i was happy with rather than one she was choosing. It wasn't the best hack in terms of obedience but the point is we did it and even with the obstacles we faced i ended the hack with a smile on my face especially after a canter back up to the fields. And what's more is that i have learned some more valuable lessons along the way.