Too Easy

The other day I was bemoaning the fact that Opie is so easy. With half a dozen rides off the track under his belt, a kid could get on this horse and go around.

Which is great because they follow us around ogling him, so when he proves to be too fucking slow to do anything but w/t shows down the line I'll sell him to their parents with an extra zero tacked onto his original purchase price.

Juuuust kidding.

he actually has a great walk when he's not half asleep

Really though, in the thought stream that only equestrians can have, I was like, "Is he too easy for me? I feel like I'm cheating the system here. MAYBE HE'S DYING OF ANEMIA AND THAT'S WHY HE'S SO CHILL." I might have some baggage, okay?

On Friday I got on him for the first time since last Saturday after he'd spent the week loafing off doing horse things. (Although the report from BM was that he mostly just loafed while everyone else in his paddock embodied their OTTB spirits to the fullest. Whoa, Opie. Settle down.) He stood at the mounting block like a statue, finally walked off with a nudge, and then stopped three strides later to see if maybe I would just like to focus on standing still today.

Sorry, kid. Riding horses have to earn their keep, too.

the dressage saddle is going to be for sale soon. i can't deal with the fit for me anymore.
anyone want an 18" 32cm stubben roxane in great condition?

After fifteen minutes of boring but productive flat work, I took him over his very first jump! No, he can't canter yet. No, his steering hasn't miraculously improved overnight. But my main goal for every ride is for him to enjoy himself. I don't want to ram contact and leg aids and DO THIS and DO THAT down his throat.

I'd spent Monday playing with him in-hand over jumps, and had led him over the tiny crossrail before I got on Friday, and he kept angling towards it during our ride. He knows he gets a peppermint when he does truly spectacular things (like standing at the mounting block, look out world). I finally just let him carry on straight to it.

He got a little squirmy coming up to it--not ever looking to go around it, just, "I don't know if I can do this all by myself." I kept my leg on and gave him a long rein and he ended up trotting right over it with his front legs and hopping over it with his hinds. His jumping style at the moment is more like interpretive dancing tbh.

and then he strolled right over it as i was trying to
get a picture because he's a legit jumping horse obvi.

I got Hubby to come out with me for some super exciting trot pictures Sunday since he was finally not doing anything else--mostly because it was flooding down in WNY, and no one was doing anything but canoeing around the streets.

Opie was bound and determined to show me he's not the easiest horse in the world. He didn't prove his point, but he did learn a few more rules the hard way.

like "you bite me, you little shit, and you get popped in the nose."
opie finds this rule OFFENSIVE.

and "just because horses are getting turned out without you doesn't mean you get to
scream and fling your head into my face." this was also OFFENSIVE to him.
my head is turned away because his neck is the exact length to bash me in the nose with his skull.

Let's be real though. Flinging your neck in the air like an angry viper is nothing more than a temporary annoyance. My last three horses would have taken off with me, spooked every step, or gone running backwards until I quit in disgust. Yawn, Opie.

Also, to be clear, that wasn't a challenge.

It was his first time being ridden during the commotion of morning chores--specifically weekend morning chores when the crazy seems to be amplified ten fold--so I cut him some slack and stuck him on the longe with a standing martingale to get his brain refocused on me. He started off wanting to dart around screaming more, but ended doing quiet trot work with his full attention on me. When I got back on I had the old Opie back.

i mean, really with this saddle.
it looks even worse on this little horse than it did on bobby.

Despite the fact that his default neck carriage is that of a....well, carriage horse, he is learning about opening up his stride a bit more. He's already great about half halts, and while sometimes I feel like I have to physically pick him up and move him over, he's fairly responsive to the leg as well. That allows me to let him move out more as the ride goes on without worrying about him falling into a fast, racing trot that's not helping anything.

He's also figuring out how to mouth the bit and soften to it. He's not a puller or a leaner by any means, he's got his head too far up for that, so when he works the bit he does it by dropping his head down to it and getting a big scratch as a reward.

things could be a lot worse at this point in the game.

I also rode him Saturday, but that's a post for tomorrow!