Houston, we have a medium trot!

Opie ended up sitting for four days that kicked off with a gram of bute. After having a colossal meltdown when being asked to hold the counter canter last Tuesday, he'd made himself tight in that one spot in his back again (hence the bute). I'd planned on giving him a nice stretchy ride Wednesday to try to help loosen things up, but I was so beat up after that ride and by a barn full of awful stir-crazy horses that I opted out. And then it got really fucking cold so I only went out one more day that week to drop off my board check and feed him carrots.

which he clearly needed. look at the size of his tiny ass to see how much he's starving.
i did cut his boost out of his pm feed today so i'll see if he holds his weight without it.

I dragged Hubby out with me Sunday afternoon to get more video. Unfortunately BM was in the midst of teaching make up lessons and we got stuck in the ring with six other riders. It turned out probably for the best though. Opie looked like he was being a good boy--and he was trying his hardest to be so--but I felt like I was sitting on a powder keg.

a really ridiculously good looking powder keg

I kept it to a pretty short w/t/c with the highlight being the canter. I know, what? The sitting trot was quite tight which made the connection all over the place, although he was pretty good warming up in the posting trot--but you can see the unsteadiness in the connection there, too, from the tension that wasn't showing up outwardly anywhere else.

The canter was just there yesterday, I don't know how or why.

But I'll take it regardless.

Today I wanted to touch on a few things, as always: the counter canter, the medium trot, and making sure the shoulder-in was a little more angled/straight and a little less faking/bending his neck.

Before I even got to the canter, I did a super quick sitting trot. He was SO SOFT. I kept praising the shit out of him, hoping that eventually sinks into his tiny enormous head. Of course we hadn't touched the lateral work yet and that's usually where things start to lock up, but a good start.

The canter was still on point. I don't know how it goes from a complete fucking shit show to his best gait all on its own, but here we are. After a few big circles in a giant, lofty, dreamy canter, I reeled him back in and did the counter canter serpentine from 2-2 with the simple change across the center line. Nailed it and stopped for a candy afterwards. Round two was holding the lead for the counter canter serpentine from 2-3. He did start to get snorty the second I asked him to hold the lead, but no dramatics so another big praise and another candy break.

trying to be ultra aggressive the praise lately

We finished with the sitting trot.... in kind of a mix of working with the medium trot and the shoulder-in integrity. It started as a hot fucking mess and ended amazing. Thankfully.

Sitting trot, ask for the SI, brush his butt with the dressage whip because I needed more, keep the shoulders straight while maintaining the angle, don't tilt your head, I'm sorry this is so much but it's time you stepped up and did it correctly each and every try. When he got it, he got praised. When he didn't I just kept insisting on the steps to make it correct. It eventually led to a brain explosion.

He gets so wound up about something--almost always when he thinks he knows what he's doing and I tell him "That's not it" and "Focus on what I'm asking instead" (the nerve of me, I know)--that the head comes up, the tongue comes flying all the way out, and the front end gets light. Just full on toddler it's hard I don't wanna Daffy Fucking Duck impression. He's done it from his very first tantrum.

I finally got him halted and made him stand there, on contact, not chomping on the bit, until he took a breath and was able to walk a lap.

Then we went right back to it because tantrums don't get you out of work!

neither does fake spooking at the tractor

He gave me what I was looking for, got a scratch, and off to the medium trot races we went. He was still a little wound, but it ended up working in my favor. He was coiled underneath himself and the first couple times I sent him across the diagonal he totally got what I was asking for. So well, in fact, that I stayed in the sitting trot coming out off the short side--using my trick to put him in a shoulder-fore in the corner--and he went bounding across in his VERY FIRST FULL DIAGONAL MEDIUM TROT EVERRRRRR.

I immediately gave him HUGE praise, dropped the reins, and let him do a couple victory laps before shoving candy in his face.

Now if only we can accomplish that without having to have a timeout first!