Riding Diary: 42

Time: 1 hr

Ride: Why is it Monday was only a couple days ago, and yet seems years away? My brain is mush. Anyways, my lesson was... welll... 50/50. Jingle was good at the warm-up, and then my trainer asked me to just post trot a medium circle, with a cavaletti in the middle of it. Okay, easy... nope. Jingle was back to his old trick of swinging in his hip and attempting to run out of the circle. My trainer reminded me to open up my inside hand to the circle and really guide him over the cavaletti, releasing tension on my outside rein. I have a habit of holding too much tension on my outside to attempt to keep him "in" the circle when I just need to work on guiding him through it, and using more leg.

Okay - let's try this again. Again, he stopped, swung his hip out and danced around. So, I got after him, and over the silly little thing he went. After a couple rounds of this he was going over it calmly with a loose rein. Sigh, it felt like it was going to be a pissy day, and indeed it was.

Jingle was beautiful the first time we loped, and I literally got the best stop out of him i've ever had before. He parked it so hard in the dirt that we bounced a couple steps. It was wicked.

The Jog was alright, a bit rushed, but he was transitioning into it really nicely and smoothly. I love his transition from walk to jog, its so effortless, and I still dont really understand why he cant maintain that same level of impulsion - it's perfect.

Then, he started stalling again on me, and started to square off his corners/attempt to run into the wall business he does to fake me out. This is a) dangerous, b) something he should not be doing - he knows better, I wasn't asking for flying changes down the centre line for heavens sake, I was asking for a jog on a small circle, and then a lope - for him, this is a cake walk. So, I picked up a crop (god, I hate riding with crops), and he got a bit of a swat everytime he attempted this "let me dance into the wall, and then stop completely" business. The good thing about Jingle ft. Crop is that I barely have to brush him with it for him to straighten out, and get back to business. A couple little smacks later and he was jogging that circle like a boss. We loped a bit more, and quit for the day.

My trainer was pretty amused for the whole ride, she commented that I own a very weird horse. Sometimes, he's an angel - so well put together, so completely amazing, other times - he's a total wack job (but he's phasing out of that), and then there's lessons like Monday where he is absolutely amazing one minute, and absolutely falls apart the next. Sometimes, owning horses with a personality, and a pissy streak, isn't easy.

For Next Time: More transition work, I want to figure out how to keep that beautiful walk-jog transition going into a slow, put-together jog.

Riding Diary: 31

Time: 1 hr

Ride: Sunday I went out to ride and focused on steering and responsiveness in the side pull. Jingle did really well, I like how more relaxed he seems in it, and just happier to go to work. He still, obviously, has his moments of "hey, remember that one time 3 years ago my Jaw was broken and hurt, well, I'm going to act like your doing that to me RIGHT NOW", but after exploring so many options I know that's a learned behaviour, and not a pain response. However, aside from those moments, his headset is more relaxed, and he's not gaping or fidgeting as much as I expected him too. Hallelujah!

Taken by a friend, "Mahm isn't here, sew tired, sew happy"

Then, Monday and my lesson happened... Do you ever think your horse has split personality disorder? Because, honestly, I often wonder if my horse is two horses trapped in one body, competing with eachother for my attention/love/anger/pain/sorrow, etc. sigh.
Jingle's right lead is not pretty, and is taking quite a bit of work to get him to pick it up. Right now our stratedgy is while entering into an arc, bend him to the left, add leg, and ask for the lead. However, bending him left just seems so wrong to me and my hands, and we often fumble it up together.

"Mahm, remember when you used to hang out with me and not ride? Let's do that again okay?"

Then.... demonponyboy appeared whilst attempting to lope our circles. Jingle decided that holding an arc through a circle was honestly not what he wanted to do during our lesson, and so he started to jut out to the left. So, I'd correct him. Then, he attempted to run me into our arena wall. No, horse, you can't do that. Then, his "jutting" turned into full blown running through the centre of the arena, whilst everyone else stops and stares at us. His nose was cranked to my knee, he was aiming towards jump standards we have in the middle.... not pretty. Bad boy.

This is where split personality comes into play... my horse would not lope a circle to save his life, instead he'd take me every which way, but where I wanted. This went on for quite some time, and then, all of a sudden after a particularly bad moment, he loped like an angel... what? Who are you Jingle?

After we got back to our normal scheduled loping, we jogged, and ended the lesson with a sweaty horse and a tired Louisa. However, ever-redeeming himself, a little girl who rides at the same time as I do on Monday gave Jingle his first EVER cookie and it was hilarious. (He used to be really nosey and pushy so I never fed him treats, but he's learned to respect my space). He took it and was shaking his head and kept giving her this wild eyed "WHAT IS THIS" look. Adorable.

"Mahm, I love you less when you ride me and get sweaty. No, I dun wanna look at you right now."

So of course... I went and bought him cookies and a lick-it, because he needed them.

& then, I went out yesterday to ride, and guess who was there to meet me at the barn? Angelfaceponyboy... I focused on transitions, and jogging for most of my ride, (lots of stopping - as per usual), and he was AMAZING. Beautiful slow jog, was actually stopping for once in his life, would actually listen to me when I scolded him for his pissy pants "I don't want to do this" act. I asked him to lope and he thought about jutting out, but all I had to do was slightly add pressure onto his side and he'd correct himself.

So what does this mean? Well... it means my horse has split personality. So, that's that. :)

In all honesty, Jingle just gets frusterated and completely looses it, he can't focus, or listen, and just becomes my problem child. However, he's clearly learning, and absorbing our lessons, and so it's coming. Patience is a virtue friends!

"Mahm, today I love you, but I love cookies more"

For Next Time: Woah. The magical word.