Naughty pony

I'm still trying to fit in a lesson with Gayle. The alternative is driving Pro over to I-85 and letting him loose on the highway. He is a bad boy.

I did try to give him the benefit of the doubt today but he was having a totally immature meltdown by the bunny tree and being a moron. He was starting to throw hissy fits and rather than get into a fight I couldn't win, I moved back down by the pond end of the arena and just worked him on a 20m circle for the rest of the ride. At that point, I didn't care if his back was up right then, or if he was being rolkured, or pseudo-rolkured, all I cared was that his head was DOWN. He was totally giving me the equine middle finger by throwing his head in the air so I figured submission took priority over correctness, at least for today's ride.

Luckily, my plan worked! I fully admit that for a good five minutes, I just CRANKED his head down and let him freak out and get mad. I wasn't expecting him to have a mental turn-around and join in on my original plans for a good ride. All I cared about at that point was that the silly crap stopped and that he submitted psychologically.

But then that little mental switch went off and it's like he said ohhh, okay, I'm not going to win today. I felt him relax, and then from there I was able to bump him up, send him forward, and work on rhythm. We worked on turning off the outside aids and getting him to stretch over his back at the trot - lots of chewing. He felt good by the end of the ride! But goodness, what a baaaaad boy...