Kate & Pro - Sunday & Monday

I think Andrea's right - he's definitely a cranky boy now that we keep adding tricks to our giant "anti-misbehavior" arsenal. He's started to get really mad and try a bunch of evasion tactics all at once. During our last lesson Gayle observed that he would try rhythm evasion, then head evasion, then back to rhythm, then head...and look consistently floored that I kept right up with him in blocking each of his attempts. Actually, while in Kroger tonight I had a large revelation. In terms of trainability, I've become very low in MY trainability factor!!! When Pro makes a request he expects me to have high trainability and say, "Oh is this what you want? For me to drop my hands? Collapse my midsection?" Now I'm finally saying "No...no...no...no." to all of his requests. And man, does it make him MAD! Though it did give me a little laugh, and it was quite humbling to realize that I've just now regained my status as the more cognitively advanced species in this duo. ;)

Anyway, he was quite mad last night. Angry when I touched him with the whip, angry when I boxed him with my inside leg, just mad that I was making him doing anything he didn't want to do. Clearly all he wanted to do was walk around sideways like a giraffe. I did manage to get him to a good stopping point after about 30min, though we only stayed at the walk. We also had a solid 10min of 10m circles by the bunny tree since he refused to relax. Well, Mommy refused to give in. I mentally "canceled" my evening plans (it helps me not get tense about realizing how much time I'm "wasting" by having to deal with his tantrums) and we walked and walked by it. Eventually he settled.

Tonight was better. Even though it was dark by the time I got to the ring (and with daylight savings coming up, this will be a sadly regular thing...) he only took about five minutes to settle down. After that he was still a bit resistant, but at least he was giving me his full attention. Always a good thing!!! I'm happy to deal with unwillingness as long as the focus is on ME. Gayle says to act like a total diva when I ride...it's all about me! ALL about ME ME ME! No one else, not Pro, not the tree, not the distractions, not anyone else. ME! :)

He was moving his shoulders QUITE well tonight. I'm still amazed at what a difference it makes to put my outside leg back a bit as I ask. Brilliant. I still have to make sure I catch him with my inside leg so he doesn't attempt to turn it into a Western spin, but he's getting better. We practiced our walking squares with quarter-pirouettes as corners and he was very good. Ended with some lovely trot. :) For about two 20m circles he was acting humorously odd - he huffed himself up as he trotted and acted like he wanted to canter or buck. I let him stretch a bit by lengthening my outside rein and he settled down. Good pony!