disastrous attempt at solo hack

[zara]

Well yestreday morning I decided to take the plunge and take AJ out on my own. He has been quite good recently. Well it was a lovely morning with no wind so I got up early and set off at about 8 am so as to hopefully miss tractors and trail bikes. Well we got all the way down and onto a farm track where we met a tractor parked across our way; the farmer very kindly moved it and turned the engine off. AJ stood as good as gold while I chatted to farmer for 5 minutes. We then set off only to come face to face with another tractor with a round bale collector thingy on the back which just appeared very noisily and suddenly from behind some trees. To cut a long story short AJ leapt about abd bolted back up the track we had come down in front of an alarmed looking farmer! i eventually stopped him and calmed him down and we managed to get back home without any further incidents but he felt like a ticking bomb.

I'm feeling totally dejected and fed up. My confidence has once again returned to rock bottom and I'm just not sure that i want to carry on hacking him out. I keep telling myself to focus on the positive like 2we got further than we've been before on our own", "Ididn't fall off" etc but I can't also stop thinking what if this had happened on the road.

Soory for the long post but feeling really fed up Zxx

[fimacg]

Zara at least he had something to be genuinely scared of, Brave did the exact same thing to me (except on the road) when he saw a scarecrow in the field about 100m from the road... hack out again with friends a few time to rebuild your confience before going for a very short hack on your own.

[fleabitten]

If you dont want to do it, dont do it zara and have no shame about it. Go back to things that you feel safe doing and hack out with friends - you could get someone else to hack him out on his own if you wanted him to do that - perhaps then with a more confident person he would be better for you then when you came to do it. I think that worked before if i remember correctly.

[granniesboy]

Oh dear. What can i say except I am felling just the same. XXX

[duckles]

Zara - you were great to try it and you will try it again. Sadly it is tractor season!!!! ANd the load baling tractor is a lot for a horse to face. Actually, I think you did great. You managed to stop him and bring him home safely. I know he felt like a ticking bomb but he is a hot blooded horse and of course it would take him a while to calm down.
I am sure you will get back to hacking alone in time.