Kate & Pro - catching up

Okay so after Andrea's difficult ride on Sunday, we decided to double up on Pro yesterday. I started off the ride, with spurs, with Andrea looking on.

The best way I can describe it is that he was MAD. Very, very pissed off. He did not want to have anything to do with focusing. All he wanted to do was crank his face in every direction and gawk at stuff. Gawk at the bench, at the poles, at the fence, at Andrea, at a tiny divot in the sand. And when I say CRANK I mean damn...he's developed some serious neck muscles. It was 100% attitude-angry too, not "I'm hurt" angry. Pure "I don't feel like doing anything you say" angry.

I kept spur-bumping him until he quieted a bit, but he threw some pretty fussy tantrums by the bench and even kicked it a bit once. He would fling himself sideways and crank his neck around. I finally got him decent at the walk and trot, and Andrea got on. He was a bit fussy for her too, but finally realized that with the two of us there, he wasn't going to win. She worked on really getting him to go forward by giving the inside rein and booting with the inside leg and I could tell from his face that for awhile it was "I know what you want, but I'm not doing it" to finally "Alright fine, I'll do it". She even cantered him by the bench and got him looking great.

Tonight was a whole different story. I started off with spurs but could tell after a few circles at the walk that I was going to have to take them off. He still had that "I hate you" attitude and started to kick out when I bumped him with the inside spur. I took them off, tossed them aside, and just went to booting with my inside leg. For some reason he was still strongly attached to the severe neck cranking (for gawking purposes) that he'd had yesterday and when inside rein giving and booting didn't work, I started to use the inside rein and then the tantrums came. He'd FLING himself sideways at 90mph and brace his entire neck against me. Halt, inside rein forward, BOOT forward. He just had a MAJOR issue with something (imagined) by the bench. I moved over to the poles area and he squiggled/squirmed/pranced/scooted by there but I was doing a pretty good job keeping him at least with his head down and going forward. We kept a 10m circle by the poles just to go by (focus on keeping it all soothing and patient) and when he started to balk, he got my inside leg and apparently that just sent him over the edge. He leapt forward into a back-cracking buck that threw me off balance and I bent my fingernail backwards on his neck (insert profanity here).

At that point...I'd completely had it. Went back to the barn, got the lunge line and side reins. Back to the arena, by the bench. Sent him FORWARD at the trot and he scooted by the bench but after a few circles he was more relaxed and rhythmic. Then I focused on not letting him dive down, but keeping his neck where I wanted (watching those topline muscles and mid-neck muscles). It was neat - I let the outside side rein be steady for me, and I used the inside to ask him to give, to reward for correctness, etc. We did a lot of trot-canter-trot transitions as well. Repeated the other direction (still scooty/dumb to start out, but then relaxed) and got him to bend more and flex. By the time we were done, he actually had some nice foam going. So...I guess that was the positive aspect of the ride.

When stuff gets really difficult and we have this "regressing", Gayle reminds me that he will ALWAYS test me. For every ride he's ever had where he got away with stuff, I need to ride him one time. To get rid of his badness completely, I have to ride all of those rides...plus one. Since I started retraining him with Gayle when he was 15...he'll be about 31 before I erase all that. %#*@(!! But what helped today (there were moments of goodness interspersed between his angry tantrums) was keeping "YOU WILL NOT CHANGE MY POSITION" at the forefront of my mind. Per Gayle's suggestion.

Andrea's lesson is tomorrow morning. I'll be there with a camera!!! Wish her luck...