Much needed redemption

I really wanted to check and see if Opie's brain was anywhere near the vicinity of his head for another dressage school this morning, but I also really didn't want to waste the money I just paid the chiro on the chance that it wasn't. I decided to go ahead and get on to at least see what I was working with.

Despite most of the horses being in due to the weather which meant everyone was screaming their fool heads off, steady 30mph winds rattling the arena, and his BFF calling for him from outside, he was surprisingly chill.

said obnoxious bff

Did a long walk warm up, being soft, being straight, not falling over because you don't want to be straight. Some posting trot with a couple leg yields to get the juices flowing, a quick stretchy walk break, and then pick up the reins and see if we could do any lateral work.

He was willing to work with me today so while things weren't perfect, my goodness were they so much better. There was even significantly less chomping on the bit because while he was a little tense trying to figure things out, he was also--FOR ONCE--listening to what I was asking.

hates listening! hates being patient! hates sharing candy!

At the shoulder-in, he wants to cheat and bend his neck instead of move his shoulders over as much as he needs to. We worked on pretending like I was about to send him across the diagonal to get his shoulders on the right track while keeping his neck straighter.

At the haunches-in to the right, I finally figured out what the giant cluster fuck was. This direction he needs to be stepping the troubled LH under. To try to get out of doing that, he swings his entire hind end almost perpendicular to the wall. While he's trying to cheat, he's actually making things a hundred times harder for himself. He also twists his head because he's not even remotely straight in the connection with his back half in a different zip code.

We spent a looooong time at the walk bringing the haunches in towards the rail instead of off of it. Once I got him on the correct angle, gently stepping that LH under, the head tilt went away as well. I oozed him into the trot, patiently oozed him into the HI, and when he got it correct I dropped the reins, got into half seat, and heaped the praise on him for an entire long side.

He got it two times with mucho praise both times, and we finished by nailing another soft, light, bouncing medium trot across the long diagonal at sitting trot. I got off right there and shoved all the candies down his throat.