Kate & Pro - 6/13

Back to my old pony again. :)

He initially rushed around at the walk - I guess that's his newfound manner of trying to evade work. Usually it was to slog around while trying giraffe face, but now he'll release his head down like he's supposed to, and rush around at the walk. Not acceptable, so I played until I had him well under me. Finally I had him behaving at the walk around the arena, so I was hopeful for a good ride. We worked on the usual walk stuff - shoulder-fore, stretching, giving the inside rein, slight spiraling for a brief stride each way, seemed good. Gayle had told Andrea (during her lesson) that often what seems like a head problem, isn't. Sometimes it's a leg problem, manifesting as a head problem. Keeping that in mind, I made sure he moved "yes ma'am"-style off my leg. I also made sure to focus attention on pegging my seatbones into his back (the imagery that Andrea discussed).

Good trot work - he was pleased and happy to go long and low - until he did a quick prop at who-knows-what that showed me he wasn't paying attention. Well now, BACK to work. That went better until we had some good canter work, until he decided to try and switch leads every time we passed by the jump block area. Since he can't hollow his back as easily at the canter to evade work, he tries to switch leads...a passive-aggressive manner of misbehaving. KICK on, and man was he pissed. He tried rushing to get back at me, but I kept at it and made him circle and circle and circle. I can't let myself tolerate head-up as an evasion, and I can't let myself tolerate rushing, either.

So the ride started good, got a bit messy in the middle, and finally was acceptable by the end. Whew!