The flood...

It turns out that Woody is quite the trouble maker.

When I arrived at the barn yesterday I noticed his stall empty and then found him in the next stall over. It looked like they were doing work to the floor of his stall, no big deal. Well it turns out that somehow Woody pulled off the top of the automatic waterer in his stall. Not only did he flood his stall, but the two stalls across from him. I am hoping this is not going to be a weekly occurrence as it seems every time I go to the barn he did something.

I never did post about our first ride at the new barn. It was this past Friday and I must admit he was better then I thought he would be. By the time I got there, no one was riding outside and it was getting dark out so I figured he would be very looky and scared of the monsters he has in his head. It ended up he was really more concerned about all the traffic coming in and out due to the lessons that were going on. It was very hard for me to keep his attention and it seemed every time a car was coming or going and we happened to be on that side of the ring he would get spooky. Let's say he was a little high strung.

Last night's ride was much different and much better. I was able to get to the barn earlier and there were a couple other people riding as well. I also made sure to longe him until he started to calm down and move the way he is suppose to, not flying around like he starts out doing. I can't say for sure, but I actually think he was a lot less nervous with other horses out there then he was last Friday. The horse I knew seemed to be returning.

I did have a couple issues with him though. It seems as if he now does not want to keep his head down. I feel like I have to consistently keep bumping him. I am sure it has to do with him looking around at whats going on, but this also causes him to not pay his full attention to me. By the end of out ride though I had him jogging around nicely with his head low like he usually carries it. It is actually too low, but for right now I rather have it there then way to high. I have a feeling that since I have been keeping a tighter rein on him, he does not want to keep his head low. I need to remember this next time I ride to test my theory. I find it is harder to ride in this ring as it is much larger then Jerry's and there are trail poles set up all over the place so this is probably why I am keeping a tigher rein on him right now.

He also started his crap again regarding my spurs. It's like he is throwing a little temper tantrum. I'm not spurring the crap out of him, but when I ask him to pick up the lope he will sometimes stop and act like he doesn't want to budge and crow hop some. It's really annoying and with other people out in the ring I felt limited on what I could do to him. It also seems he is not responding quite as well as he should be to the spur stop or when I ask him to back. I have a feeling this has to do with no longer being ridden everyday.

Yesterday, I finally felt like his lope is starting to become more collected. But it only seems like this when I lope him in a circle in the corner of the ring. If I let him go in a straight line, its like WATCH OUT EVERYONE HERE WE COME. I also noticed that when I would begin to turn him into the ring to make the circle he would speed up but then become collected once again when we got back on the rail.

Let's see what progress we make together on Wednesday!

Christina