Disaster strikes

It became apparent within 2 days that Tequila was absolutely terrified of our pigs.  Whenever we went into the sand school she would turn into a tense giraffe who wanted to just bolt away from them.  Even being led I couldn't persuade her to venture into the top half of the school and then she decided that she would not lunge.  Every time I put her on the lunge she would refuse to move away from me and if she did get out onto the track she would just rush towards me and even the lunge whip would not keep her out.  I was bereft, what on earth was I going to do?  I couldn't ride her in the school and now I couldn't lunge her either.

Things really started to deteriorate and in the stable she got more bargy and pushy and if I was in the stable she would absolutely refuse to step back from the door to allow me to go out.  If I tried to move her over or back she would quite literally swipe me across the head with her head and a couple of times I ended up seeing stars.

The only good thing was that I went out on a couple of hacks with Mike and Tommy and even when Tommy was exceptionally naughty and bolted I was able to keep control of her and at no time did I feel out of control.  She gave me a couple of frights with cars on the road and that is something we are still working on as she seems to be very frightened of them but most of the time out hacking she is well behaved.

A week after she arrived we went on a 20k organised ride at St Jory de Chalais and she behaved impeccably for the whole ride.  Afterwards we were allowed to go on the Cross country course and she jumped everything I asked her to.  Although only small fences she was obviously really enjoying herself and so was I.  I had a glimmer of hope that she might actually be the horse that I had been looking for.