Lucas has been in for two days while we integrate the new geldings into his 'herd'. Lucas is buddies with them from last year but the other two horses he's out with don't know them at all. So yesterday he got turnout time in the indoor and lunged and we did showmanship. The plan was for him to have breakfast inside this morning then go out around 10 and let him fit into the new herd. He's the boss, but will back down if he's outnumbered so we wanted to give the new horses a chance to fit in and have some of the round bale before bossy Lucas got out.
So I decided I would ride him while he was in, so I got him tacked up, lunged him while another horse was doing showmanship, kept him lunging even after that horse had left and then got on. Every thing was good for the first 10 min or so. We did our bending that we've been working on and moving his hips/hind end independently. Then I asked him to trot off... and we got into our old argument where he gets 'stuck' and we both get more and more pissed off at each other. I knew we had to get though it today as I wasn't going to be able to get out to the barn again until Wednesday. The conversation went something like this.
Me: Ok lets trot
Lucas: Nope
Me: Come on, move your hip here, and then trot off
Lucas: I'll move my hip but I'm not trotting
Me: (making clucking noises) trot
Lucas:Nope
Me: Ok fooling around time is over, trot now!
Lucas: NOPE Screw you!
Me: Nope, you're screwed.
It was at this point I got off and lunged Lucas for another 10 min at the canter, stood him back up at the mounting block and got back on.
Lucas: Now what
Me: We trot
Lucas: *sigh* ok
I finally got him to listen to me, and we worked out the 'stuck' issue by ourselves! I think he just wants to boss someone around, and figures I'm low man on the totem pole and he can do what he wants when he wants. We had some decent trot work after that but we were both worked up and pissed off and fought each other a bit. The walk work is helping both our flexibilities and its starting to pay off in the trot. I so want it to be warm so we can go work outside in the big ring!
I decided not to canter today and push the issue! I'm getting my back looked at tomorrow night and we'll try the cantering to the left again once I figure out whats going on with me. No point punishing Lucas when my hips are telling him to canter on the right lead even when we are going left.
1 comment:
Glad to hear you finally worked it out between you and had a good trot.
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