We can't catch a break!

Friday was great. At the yard early to work, so when done, Max and I had a very gentle and productive session in the school doing clicker and whip de-sensitising. I didn't use my own whip (that is to come later) but the one in the school. He was unsure at first, but genius me brought in the mint lick, and that took care of any reservations. We did one whip session at the beginning, one in the middle and one at the end. That was especially good as by that time the Ent had come over to the yard, so I got him to stand at Max's head with the lick (warning to be ready to get out of the way if Max shot forward) while I went all round him with the whip, touched his quarters, raised it up and down, etc.

There were two points when Max froze and stopped licking, one over his hinds, and one over his head. In both cases I just stood still and kept the whip where it was until he relaxed and started licking again.

In between all those, we did moving quarters over, raising front legs, backing up, and then backing up through an "L" shape I made with the jump poles. This caused a little confusion, but with lots of praise, Max didn't get his confused look - or at least not the scared confused look, just the slightly baffled confused look. With that look, he offers something else that he thinks might get him a pony nut, usually a kiss.

So we left the school upbeat, Max relaxed and jaunty.

Yesterday after I'd done the boxes, I took him back in there again. We were just warming up, hadn't decided exactly what I was going to do yet, but head collar was off. We'd just done the whip work again (thank goodness the danged thing had been put away) and had gone through some simple backing up and quarter moving when Max's head shot up and he tensed. He stared into the corner of the school and moved away from me.

I just watched for a bit, waiting for him to relax but he wouldn't. I could see nothing. I walked to where he was looking but couldn't find anything.

Then Max kicked off. Trotting, snorting (proper stallion snorts) shaking his head. His trot was beautiful, one of those really lifted ones that seems to hover over the ground for a bit. Neck arched, tail high; he was a picture all right, but oblivious to anything I might say or do.

Tried the mint lick. He didn't acknowledge it was there or that I was there holding it. Arab Mist descended.

So I stood there wondering how I was going to get him back to his box. Outside the school in the open, had to get him to the gate, close the gate, across the slippery yard by the muckheap, through the barn. How was I going to do all that when he was loopy? It was a proper consideration. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when he's like that, I'm pretty helpless.

I broke it down to just having to get him as far as through the gate, because if he got away from me then, at least he would be contained in the yard.

So I waited a bit longer, but no change in Max. Rigid, alert, maybe looking more excited than scared. He let me approach and I did get him to give me a kiss for a click, but it was absent minded and he strode away again.

I thought with the lick though, and a teensy bit of attention, I could get him home, so I seized the opportunity. I was aware too that obviously something was happening outside of the school that Max knew about and I didn't, so prepared myself for Max being outside the school instead of in it and able to see whatever had him so worked up.

We haltingly made our way to the gate, but it was not easy. Once through the gate, along with my boy standing tall and rigid, I could see two others on the yard on high alert looking out of their boxes.

Loose cows, is what it was. Loose cows roaming around the hay and straw storage behind the school.

Let Max stare at the cows with the whites of his eyes showing... he grew up with cows, lived in a herd of cows with his mum. Still, now they are foreign to him, it would seem.

Didn't settle in his box straight away either, and wanted to barge back out, but a new bit of hay sorted that out.

So today? Don't know. Really didn't need Friday's work undone by Saturday's random cow escape, but there you go.

There is no sign of any pain in his movement or any unsoundness, though I will still have this looked at.

Another owner suggested that Max's whip fear might not be because he's been hit, but perhaps an association with something else scary in the school that has now made the whip scary in general.

That's possible, and I'd rather believe that than that he'd been scared by threatening behaviour. We have had a few quite scary school sessions (weather, wind, hammering rain and rattling roof type stuff) and each time it has been either lunge work or lines and yes, the whip has always been there.

But that doesn't explain his Arab Mist out and about and as illustrated yesterday, he does always have a proper reason for the excitement or fear (hard to differentiate, but adrenaline is up and that's what counts).

I really daren't take him out now. I wouldn't in this weather anyway, but when it clears, I can't take the risk. It's not safe for either of us because it's so random. He might be fine, but if he isn't, if something unforeseen happens, we're buggered. I'd never forgive myself if he got hurt.

Pah. Stupid cows.

The thing I keep coming back to that troubles me is Max's respect. If he truly respected me as a leader, then would he get so anxious? Then again, as I know, as Monty Roberts says and as many of my follow horsey friends have said too, when adrenaline is up, learning is down, and the fact that I can't get through to Max when he's like that may have nothing to do with my leadership abilities in his eyes.

But why is it happening so much now? What's changed? The calmer supplement I' ve been using certainly isn't making a dent in it. The Top Spec has been introduced but the loopy behaviour started before that change in diet. It has increased since Top Spec has been introduced, but I think that's coincidental.

More things to ponder.