All About Fritzy

First, I would like to thank all of you for your comments about my bucking bronco, Fritzy. After reading all of your comments, I thought I would respond to some of them in a blog post. It will be much easier than replying in the comments section.

Second, I am going to go into a little detail about Fritzy's past. We purchased Fritzy from an auction in June 2006. From what we were told, Fritzy had some training. Once we got her home and I started riding her, I realized that Fritzy was basically just saddle broke. She did not know how to respond to cues, in other words, I could not get her to trot or whoa. She would walk and turn, and that is about it. I decided that I should hire a trainer, since I already had my hands full training my greenbroke Arab, Brandy. When my trainer first came out and rode her, she told me that Fritzy was not broke. Now the funny thing is, I had in my hands before we purchased Fritzy, an auction book for a really big auction in the Northwest (not the same auction we bought Fritzy from), that was held a month before we bought Fritzy. It listed all the horses for sale for that auction, and after we bought Fritzy, I just happened to be browsing through it and happened to find Fritzy in it. This is what the book said about Fritzy: "Fritzy is a gorgeous black and white mare with a solid bone structure. She has been used as a mountain horse and broodmare. She won't quit you in the hills and throws beautiful, big boned babies. She sells open. Don't miss the chance to add her to your herd." Mountain horse? Yeah, right! There is no way this horse was used as a mountain horse. When my trainer was taking Fritzy on training trail rides, you could tell this horse had little to no experience on the trails. But we all know how honest auction people can be! When she dumped me 2 months after we bought her (Sept. 2006. During the time of the incident, we were not in the arena, I did not have an arena yet. I had lunged her, and just got on her and started walking around when she went into a full on bronco buck. After much discussion with my trainer, we felt she must have been stung by a bee for her to act this way. Plus we took into consideration on how she acted after she dumped me, and of course that she never tried bucking again, she was just as terrified of the situation as I was. We eventually sent Fritzy to the barn my trainer was training at, and she was put in western pleasure training for 90 days (she's had about a total of 9 months professional training.) Fritzy was pushed hard. After 30 days, my trainer gave me a serious talk and said she didn't know if this horse was going to work out for what we were looking for. Fritzy wasn't mean, and never tried bucking, but she was just not getting it. 3 days after that conversation, my trainer called me totally excited. Fritzy finally was figuring it out! I have noticed while doing ground work with Fritzy, that she just learns slower then other horses. But she is also a very dominant, stubborn and strong headed horse. She definitely has a mind of her own. It really takes a lot to work with this horse. I am dead tired when I am done. But she is not mean. While she was in training, my trainer recommended I have a lameness check done on her. She was having some issues going to the left. I had the vet out and she did the whole lameness work up and unfortunately I can't find my vet paperwork anywhere to say what she said! (It must be in my huge pile of paperwork "to be filed.") And this old brain of mine can't remember the results from 4 years ago. But I do know that it wasn't bad. She had some mild lameness, and the vet suggested that we have chiropractic work done on her. We had the chiropractor out (yes, I found this paperwork!) and this is what she said "Trouble holding canter, slight LH lameness, worse circling left, guards left hock". She adjusted her poll, neck, back and pelvis on the left side. My trainer and I thought it helped a little. Once I pulled her out of full time training, we basically used her for trail riding for my OH. She was never my priority, and we really did just buy her for my OH for trail riding. So that is basically what Fritzy has become, a pasture pet and trail mount for my OH and some friends. I do some arena work with her, but no loping due to my past confidence issues with her.




August 2010~ The first evening I loped her, I started her out to the right, since that has always been her good way. She didn't buck. I could tell that she was not in shape for loping, she had a hard time slowing down. Once I switched directions and started to lope, we made about 2 circles before she started bucking. Once I got her under control, and was able to get her loping again, she tried bucking again, but I was able to get control of her and keep her in the lope and we loped until she was settled and slowing down. The next day, I started the lope to the right again. I didn't have any issues with her the day before with this direction. We had pulled the keyhole rope off to the side of the arena, and she shied away from it and started bucking. Again I got after her and made her lope again. We went by the keyhole rope again, and she shied and started bucking. Got her under control and with everything that was going on in the arena, I didn't have the space to make her do it again right at that time. The final straw came when we were just walking towards the arena gate to exit the arena, no loping involved whatsoever. She just decided to hunch her back, put her head down, and become a bucking bronco. That is when I know that it wasn't just loping that caused her to buck. I know this horse and know when she is done. I have actually never had a horse before with an attitude like this, and she was flat out going to dump me. When she was in full time training, she would start to think that training was "over" in half an hour, so when my trainer would go past that time, she would start to get really pissy (no bucking) and she would be really hard to deal with. Of course my trainer worked through all of that. This is the same attitude she used to have when she thought she was done. That is why I said that she is NOT done, until I say she is done. She used to get that way, and for her to decide that she is going to dump me because she thinks she is "done", is NOT going to happen.




So yes, there could be a couple different issue's here. I will now respond to some reader comments:

Lisa and Baystatebrumby~ Lisa, you are so funny! No, I don't have any velcro on my butt, although I'd rather not have to sit that kind of seat, the bucking seat! But that sheepskin seat cover was really nice, and I think that really helped me stay on during the bucking! Without it, I probably would have come off! I was using my OH's saddle, which has a 16" seat and it's too big for me. So thank you to my Aunt for loaning it to me for the trip! It helped keep me in the saddle and I must buy myself one of those! Lisa and Colleen, you both touched on something that I have been thinking about since our trip. Fritzy has never really been an "arena" horse. She has protested during training in the arena, but nothing like bucking. And for the most part she has been fine being worked in the arena. I know she definitely prefers the trails, and that is what we bought her for. A few years ago I was just hoping that she could become a western pleasure horse that I could show some day, but we squashed that plan once we knew that she wasn't quite cut out for it. But I still need to ride her in the arena, especially without any crazy antics. I don't get to trail ride very often, so when I can't go trail riding, I have to ride in my arena. So it is something she is going to have to accept. But I also don't think her bucking had to do with the arena in general. She has never bucked like that in the arena, and even though she threw some hissy fits during training a few years ago, she hasn't done it since.

Kate~ I really appreciate your comment and I have thought of all the things you mentioned. I know that the saddle can feel different when loping, and part of my boot camp plan is to lope, lope, lope with the saddle on her back before I get back on her. I have 2 saddles that I use on her that fit and I will use them both. She doesn't buck on the lunge line either, maybe once or twice in the last year and that was without a saddle. During lunging, with a saddle, I don't recall her ever bucking. When I loped Fritzy, I don't think I used much leg on her at all. Especially with how she was going so fast at the lope, I was keeping my leg off her, butt deep in the saddle, trying to get her to slow down. After the next few weeks of boot camp, when I see how things are going, and if she is still bucking, I will make a vet appointment for another checkup. She could probably use another Chiro adjustment too. Another thing I realized while going back and looking at picture's, I was using a different saddle pad. I had used that pad on her a few years ago for a schooling show I showed her in, but haven't used it since.

Tammy~ I totally agree with you. I know Fritzy was probably sore. She had a lot of time off in the last year, then I started trail riding her about a month before our trip (unfortunately due to traveling for my job, I wasn't able to do much trail riding prior to when I did start conditioning her.) Then we went on long trail rides for a couple days before we rode in the arena. Since she hasn't been worked much in the last year, I know she had to be quite sore. This is what my sister and I were talking about after the first night of her bucking.

City Girl Turned Country Girl~ Michelle, the tank top was a special order from zazzles.com. We designed them and ordered them for our first annual Stampede, and we bring them every year to wear for our "Pink" ride. For some reason, we think we are all untamed and unashamed!

BrownEyed Cowgirls~ If I can't get Fritzy to shape up, I just might be shipping her your way!!



So my plan that I have already started, is to lunge her without a saddle this week and do a lot of ground work with her. She is a very pushy, dominant, in your pocket horse, and I have done a lot of ground work with her to get her to back off of pressure and of me. She is is also the type that you have to keep up with ground work, or she will go back to her pushy ways.She responds very slow to commands (although at the Stampede, I have never seen her back off from me so quick after our ground work) and she is a slow learner (it's like working with a brick wall.) Next week I will put the saddle back on her and continue to lunge her. I will see where she is at and go from there on when I will get back on her again. And for those of you that were wondering, YES, I will be wearing my helmet (and maybe some body armor?!?!)