Lesson Day!

This week has been a mixed bag of rides. I was busy with work so his riding schedule was pretty light which I think contributed to his mood by Saturday.

As mentioned before,  Zeke loses his sh@t over mosquitoes. That contributed to the poor rides this week.

Saturday, Zeke must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. He was cranky he didn’t get to go out and play during breakfast (my uncles fault) then decided he wouldn’t go through the gate. He would back up or go sideways or go any effing direction other than forward through it.

My aunt had to come behind him with a lunge whip to get him to go through.  Again, she had to come behind him to walk on the trailer.

Getting to the barn he was actually quite good. I chased him around (even though he really didn’t need it) and tacked up to ride inside. Then the idiot wouldn’t walk close to the mounting block.  Same as when he wouldn’t come through the gate. He planted his feet and would go backwards, sideways and I had to get help to get him to go forwards. (Everytime I go to give him a smack with the whip or rope I have with me he go sideways or backwards so I can’t get behind him.)

Once I was on him he was quite quite good though.

We started with trot poles and did a little course which he totally nailed. After that we did a course of x’s. OUR FIRST LITTLE COURSE!!!.... KIND OF haha. He basically crawled over the xs and even knocked a couple over. But other than being a bit wiggly he was quite good!

It shows up on the flat and especially with jjumps. He doesn’t totally respect the leg and doesn’t like to go forward. When you put your leg on he sometimes tucks his head of comes up above the contact and slows down. The wigglynes comes from his head coming up off contact and not going forward when I squeeze.  The suggestion was to follow the contact whichever direction he goes. Not to hold him but to artificially create it a bit so he cant evade it and will eventually learn to push into it.

It definitely improved and we then moved on to doing some canter poles in both directions. The left was as always better than the right but both were quite good. The canter just needs a lot of work.

We cooled out outside where we rode with 2 other horses!! That were a non issue even with a bunch of wind. We also walked over flowers which were a total non issue. Woohoo!

After the lesson I untacked and went to leave. Guess what… the baby wouldn’t leave the barn…. Bah.. the habit it getting really old.

When we got home I unloaded and led him into the barn where he proceeded to try to nip my arm coming in.

Then because I’m the best mom ever.. I made him a toy which he thoroughly enjoyed as you can see haha.

Just one of those no good very bad days..