November Review, December Goals

Better late than never!

November Review:

1. Fitness for real. So much trotting and cantering in and out of the ring. The awesome weather last month that's carried over into this month made this a really easy, fun goal.

2. No stirrup work. Every ride in the jump saddle the stirrups were crossed at least half the time. I keep at this every single time I'm in my jump tack so it wasn't quite as woefully painful as it could have been.

i didn't label the months this time. use your smarts.

nope. even with hubby's help he still looks like a big, awkward mule beast.

December Goals:

1. Bend on a circle both ways. Oh, you know. Just one of those rudimentary things Bobby no longer seems capable of.

2. One lesson with BM. I need and want a lesson. I'm hopeful I can get the money around for BM.

3. Lose the 'tude. Let's be a pleasant fellow, huh Bobby? I'd like him to start carrying less tension through the back after being asked to do something hard. He needs to move on quicker from what gets him upset.

4. Mr Tappy. He gets to go for a ride all the time! And it's never going to be an issue ever again. Right, Bobby?!

5. Jump once a week. I don't want to get so sucked down the dressage "fix everything on the flat all the time!" tunnel that we completely push jumping to the side. Too many days between jump schools makes for a crazy britches.

6. Do something fun once a week. Whether it's just finishing out the ride or an entire day devoted to it, I need to lighten up and enjoy my horse a bit more. Even if sometimes I hate him.

Lots to work on this month which is perfect. I need some focus in my life.

3rd Annual Deck the Bobby Christmas Pictures

I'm much too lazy to link up to the last two years, but that's okay. You can still marvel at the glory of this year's Christmas outfit! I didn't have a set plan on what I wanted to do this year until I was at the grocery store with my mom over Thanksgiving. We passed through the holiday aisle on our search for something else and I spotted these giant silver bells. I didn't even know what I was going to do with them, but they had Bobby written all over them.

A couple days later, we were wandering through the Christmas section at Menards on Black Friday looking for lights, and I started random piling things into the cart that I thought were festive. So this year's pictures evolved into a simple "FUCK YES CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!!!!!!!" theme.

elliott and quinn wanted in on the christmas spirit.
or they just wanted to know why bobby was jangling so much. 

Saturday morning I went out to the barn by myself first thing to braid Bobby's mane while Hubby was hunting. Hubby is patient and tolerant, and I braid quickly, but asking him to stand there while I did it seemed like a bit of overkill.

As I was setting up my stool and braiding shit, BM walked into the barn and called down from the other end of the aisle, "You haven't done it yet, have you? Did I miss it?!" And that is how I know I ended up at the right barn. The main concern for everyone at my barn in PA was that I was never going to find another place that embraced my crazy--aka my need to dress my horse up in outfits all the time.

We plunked a Santa hat down on the barn cat and I got to work. This barn embraces my crazy just fine.

ears go up for candy dispensing. 

I chucked Bobby outside in his Hello Kitty sleazy for a couple hours until Hubby and I came back to begin the decorating process. I had silver and red bows for his braids, bigger bows for his breast plate, ornaments to dangle of his running martingale, and my giant bells. I wasn't entirely sure what to do with the bells when it came down to it. I finally just draped them over his beck and called it good.

glorious.

At this point, one of the older ladies that boards at the barn walked by on the way to call the vet for her pus-eyed horse (So gross, but ended up just being a teeny scratch.) and stopped to admire my pile of giant crap spread across the aisle.

"Is that to decorate his stall?"
"No, N. That's to decorate him."
"Best idea ever! He's going to look so handsome! But what are you going to wear?"

Well, supportive barn mate that also readily embraces the crazy, I picked up an ugly-ish sweater and a Santa hat of my own. I grabbed my glittery wreath and carefully climbed aboard.

he so wanted to sample the fake sparkly apples.

Since there's been no snow so far this season, we hiked out back to the pond to pose on the bridge where we could at least avoid getting pictures in the mud. Bobby was, as always, supremely difficult to pose with his ears up. They might be up in all the ones I'm posting, but for every one photo of them forward, there are thirty with them flopped sideways or backwards.

forcefully trying to get them up for a head-on picture. didn't happen.
and no, bobby is not sad about his plight. this is bobby's every day expression. 

watching horses race around.

Without a doubt, these were the classiest Christmas pictures we've done. In fact, his braided-in bows looked so fucking fabulous, I left them in.

"hullo. please give me those snacks." 

they even survived turnout.

and went for a trail ride.

So there you have it. Christmas 2015 in the books. Here's hoping his bows stay in forever and ever!

so handsome. 

Hard.

The inner workings of Bobby's brain sometimes get the best of me. After all our years together, and through all the different things we've done, I feel like most of the time I have a fairly good grasp of what's going on with him and how to get, if not the best, than at least the most he's capable of giving that day out of him.

It's hard work. Bobby is not an easy horse, and while I get uncomfortable giving myself praise of any sort, I know that if he looks like he's being a pleasure to ride, it's because of considerable skill on my part. This past week, however, I've felt like I'm slowly getting dragged down into the pits of despair by my horse.

Trainer is now in a position where health-wise, she's not going to be able to give lessons anymore. BM and I knew this was coming, though of course we were hopeful that we'd get to spend so much more time with her. She's without a doubt been the biggest influence on my riding, even through such a short amount of time that I got to work with her.

After a couple difficult rides in a row where I felt like I couldn't grasp even the most basic of concepts (How do I get my horse to fill the left rein?! I know I know how to do this, but my brain cannot brain right now and make it happen.), all I wanted was a lesson to get yelled at. Hearing that news instead, I took all of the mistakes I'd made this past week and every twitch Bobby did that wasn't asked for to heart and let it really get to me.

I feel like we're going to get stagnant, to get stuck where we are and never progress, and I want so badly to be past that point. Or even worse, we're going to slide backwards and undo all the work Trainer has done. I will try to take lessons with BM when I can, but she's more than three times as expensive as Trainer.

"my hay wasn't put out here before i was.
BRING IT TO ME."

Bobby missed two days of turnout due to the weather and the barn trying to eliminate the build up of mud. I rode him both of those days, so he did get out of his stall, but they weren't the best rides. I ended up getting off after fifteen minutes or so yesterday because he was throwing himself into the wall when I asked him to do a canter transition that didn't involve flinging the front half of his body skyward and shooting off upon landing.

I know. So cruel of me.

I put him on the longe instead, and while initially I tried to get him to maintain a chill trot, I quit engaging with him period. He simply wouldn't settle down and listen to me. I ended up standing still and letting him canter laps around me while I played on my phone. When he was too exhausted to canter, he brought himself back to the trot and trotted until he was too tired to even do that. I let him come in, gave him a pat, and put him away.

We'll officially call that one a write off day.

free flowing forehead sweat.

thank god for a fresh clip.

We're at a point in our training where he's being asked to take the next step forward. It's hard work, and Bobby doesn't like hard. I have to make every step super repetitive and easy so that when I do ask for a little more, he doesn't even notice I've done it.

He's such a dopey, polite boy on the ground that it gets lost on most people just how sensitive to things he is. He very much takes not getting things right to heart, and he has a hard time moving on when you correct him and tell him what he's doing isn't what you're asking for.

For example, he's mastered bringing his haunches in and out and crossing over with his hind legs to the point where that's easy for him. Now whenever I shift my weight, he thinks that's what I want him to do. If, instead, I'm asking for a leg yield, he has a mini meltdown before doing the leg yield on the next pass. If the pass after that I want to just go straight, his mind is thoroughly blown.

Letting go and moving on are not his strong points.

I feel like all of my rides for the past couple weeks have been about getting him to relax his back and let go of all his tension. I'd like to move on from that and do some real homework. I know that in the long run, knowing all these different tricks to manage the tension is going to pay off when we get to a show and run into the same problem, but it's a little discouraging at times.

i longed before today's ride and got all the bronc stuff out pronto so we could go like this.

I'd like to just bring out a pleasant horse one day, have an easy ride where he shows off everything he knows without making a huge pissy fuss about it, and then call it quits. Maybe I'm being too much of a defeatist. It's hard to look past the journey of getting to that point when you're solidly aboard the "This shit is fucking hard" train. We have to put in the time, do our homework, and keep crawling forward like we always do.

Instead of crying about it (definitely cried about it), I need to make a game plan, set some realistic if boring goals, suck it up, and get back to work.

There's lots of positive to pick out of these rides if I try. He's gotten better with me carrying the whip, and even let me brush it against his butt with only a minor meltdown before remembering that when it did such scary things, he was being asked to lengthen. And when he did lengthen? For the first time ever, I was able to sit it, and it was oh so easy.

Small wins. It's what we're all about here.

stank eye.

Heard around the barn

Horse people are nut cases, that's a fact that can't be disputed. I moved to this barn and have stayed because I love the atmosphere here. Everyone is friendly and outgoing, and since my social life is the barn, that's a huge thing for me.

so naked and sporty.

When I was there this morning, BM was holding horses for the farrier, I was riding with another woman, and there were two electricians in and out installing lights. So many funny-to-horse-people-only things were flying around in conversations I couldn't help but share some of them.

Walking by Bobby in the aisleway: Your horse looks like a gorilla when he's clipped.

Saying hello to a boarder with her head buried in her trunk: I knew it was you because all I saw out of the corner of my eye was purple.

The new boarder updating BM on how her horse is doing in turnout: He's out there making out with Luka.

BM holding a psycho Thoroughbred for Farrier: Last time we trimmed him, I didn't make eye contact with him because I think he knows I hate him.

Farrier after psycho Thoroughbred got trimmed without maiming anyone: GOOD BOYYYY!!! It's a Christmas miracle!

Boarder N recapping her ride for BM who will put a training ride on her horse tomorrow: He's going to be so crappy for you. I rode like crap so he had no other choice than to go like crap.

If you guys have any one liners or hilarious stories from your own barns, please share!

tapped with mr tappy and not sure he's still alive.

Welcome back, black stallion.

I have returned! Really I got back to New York Sunday night and went to see my horse on Monday, but I didn't have time to write about that first ride back. I was too busy unpacking all my Christmas lights and then feeling sad I didn't have enough to decorate the house the way I wanted to. That would involve about fifty more boxes of lights which seemed slightly outlandish. Going to put that on hold until next year, but it will be done.

Look out, neighbors. We are going to light the entire block next year!

FUCK YES, CHRISTMAS!!!!

puppies celebrate decorating the tree at my mom's.

I usually do my goals on the first of the month, but my mule beast has been such a tool about standing not looking like a mule beast for conformation pictures when I have no one to hold him that I decided to wait until this weekend to have Hubby help.

Plus that will give me time to actually come up with real goals.

Right. Goals. Focus. Not getting distracted by how nice the weather has been and spend every ride outside on the trails.

Anyway, the report from BM when I got back was good. Bobby didn't maim himself and only half assed tried to kill people by going "airborne while leading across the driveway." Bobbys do what Bobbys want, it can't be helped.

bobby's destroy their boots by stepping on themselves
while violently flailing about like colossal assholes.

I went to get him out of the paddock once I'd dropped off my SmartPak and filled my pockets with cookies. His turn out buddy, who is a grouchy old fuck face that hates everyone, saw me coming and walked over to get caught (we had a go-round when they first started going out together about not running away and trying to kick me...) and get his candy (...which was solved through food bribery.).

My horse, my partner in all athletic endeavors, the one who carries me fearlessly over giant cross country jumps and is brave AF in all new situations because we have each other's backs, stood there like a giant donkey and refused to budge even though he hadn't seen me in a week.

 Pretty sure he loves me.

Pretty sure that's just a minute and a half video showing how telescopic my horse's giant fucking ears are.

We went right out onto the trails because I knew he was going to be stupid, and I didn't want to fight about it in the ring. He was very stupid. He spent the whole ride jigging, llama-ing, and snorting when not actively spooking at things. Of course, the one time we came across something genuinely spooky--a brand new ground blind tucked into a bend in the trail--he turned an ear towards it before continuing to trot by without another look.

And then went flying sideways five steps later when a leaf blew into his face.

i'm not saying he's the smartest horse in the world,
but i dare you to show me another.

I let him do his thing and be an idiot. He hadn't been ridden in a week, and honestly, Bobby spooking isn't really all that impressive. He gets to have fun and be a fruit cake every now and then.

We finally made it into the indoor to finish the ride. He had a hump in his back and was taking short, quick steps at the trot, but once he got to blow around at the canter--and BM, who had been walking back and forth teaching a lesson, took cover behind a jump--his trot was much more relaxed and swinging.

look how giant this carrot is.
LOOK AT IT.

This morning I got there bright and early knowing I was going to have to dig out ye olde clippers again.

Again, I said.

This was the fourth time since October that he's been clipped. It's like he's willing winter to come by instantly growing back a full coat in under a week. Enjoy the fifty degree weather, dude. I don't get the rush.

To combat this absurdity, I pulled out my blades I reserve for his final spring clip where we're getting ready to compete. I took him down to soft, glossy skin.

actually he was dusty as shit and now looks like a zebra, but i was so annoyed at having
to clip him again that i didn't even care. he'll just grow it all back by tomorrow.

We took advantage of the jumps set up in the ring for our ride. There were two gates that I put a pole over to make 3' and I made a big X. His flat work warming up was heavy and resistant, but I eventually got him going around pretty respectably and we began.

The first jump over one of the verticals was good, and so was the next one. After that, he started building speed as he went. When he takes over and goes, he gets a great distance every time, but it's a flat, ugly jump. He's like a steeplechaser which is really not what we're going for in stadium.

bobby's mantra.

I've felt like such a boss trainer/responsible rider these past couple months. I've really worked on pushing Bobby for more correct work and not letting the stupid shit he does slide by. Today was no different. Instead of doing a few more jumps where he was fast and flat and not listening but getting a good distance and quitting, I broke down each jump into its own game plan.

For the vertical on the diagonal off the left lead, we were able to canter up to it. I gave him several really strong half halts with my shoulders and held to the base to make sure he did the same instead of giving up and letting him take over the last few strides. In response, he kept a collected, sane canter and gave me a really good jump every time.

For the vertical on the straight away off the right lead, the canter wasn't happening. Instead, I brought him back to the trot and made him listen that way. Trotting jumps has been harder for me in the past, but we were gelling this time around and once again we made it to the base every time to get a really good jump out.

The X on the other diagonal was just as easy after doing those two big jumps first. He trotted calmly in and cantered calmly away. Good, britches.

naked britches hates his life.

We finished with some really good, uphill trot work before I once again blanketed the shit out of him and chucked him outside in the rain.

And Mr Tappy? He was along for the ride on Monday and kept getting switched from hand to hand. Robert didn't give him a second thought our entire ride.

Mr Tappy goes for a ride along: Pt. II

I went out to ride Saturday afternoon. It had finally gotten a little chillier, so I tucked Bobby under his butt cape and we headed into the outdoor once again to enjoy the sun despite the cold. He was his usual dopey self as I tightened his girth, dropped my stirrups, and got on.

I let him walk one lap on the buckle as I got my coat adjusted and generally shifted and fiddled around before picking up my reins to get to work. Bobby obediently dropped his head and did the same. After one lap, I halted him at the far end of the ring to do a turn on the forehand to change direction.

He'd barely completed the halt before he started going backwards--not in a frantic way, but in a "Oh, gosh. We've halted. Time for a rein back. I know how to do this. Just do it quickly so we can keep going." way. I corrected him, had him halt again, and asked for the turn.

He's done turns on the forehand approximately one million and a half times. This wasn't a new request. It wasn't a difficult request. But for whatever reason, it completely set Bobby off.

He whipped around, legs flailing in every direction, stepping all over himself (remind me to take pictures of his now shredded Dover boots when I get back), until he was facing the opposite direction. Whatever, Bobby. We'll come around and try it again.

Only he'd frozen in place and wouldn't move his feet.

That's not a new Bobby evasion by any means, so I heaved an exasperated sigh and went through the motions of getting him unstuck. I grabbed mane with one hand since he does occasionally go up before he goes forward, used my other hand to give him a big opening rein into the wide open space of the arena, and put my leg on relentlessly until he took a step forward.

Back around after a lap and try again. Once more he flung himself around to face the opposite direction and added in racing backwards this time. I quit on the idea of a turn on the forehand and simplified the plan to walking a lap and then halting calmly at that end of the arena before calmly walking off again.

Nope.

NOPE.

Once he halted, I'd scratch and pet his neck and tell him he was a good boy. While I was doing this, he'd bend his entire dinosaur neck and head and shoulders around to touch my boot. He had to splay his front legs out to compensate for how twisted he was getting himself, so when I did finally manage to get him walking again, he'd half lurch, half fall forward.

Mostly it was just him doing this over and over again, to both sides of his body. I could feel his heart pounding under my legs, but he wasn't snorting, his eyes weren't wide, he wasn't trembling. He wasn't biting at my leg or his own sides. He was just bending his whole front half around to look back at me.

Occasionally he would change things up when I asked him to walk off. Sometimes it was throwing himself sideways. Sometimes it was launching forward into a canter instead of a walk. Once he even sat backwards on top of the arena fence.

The finale came when BM left the ring with her lesson student and there was just me and another girl hacking a horse in the ring. Bobby and I were standing at the far end of the ring with my reins completely drooped. I was petting his neck and he was standing like an idiot with his front legs wide apart after turning back a few times when suddenly his whole front end buckled and the back half started to go down with it.

I goosed him with my spurs and yelled, "Don't you dare lay down with me, asshole!" He hopped back up, but was still frozen in place. At that point I kicked my feet out of the stirrups and got ready to bail if he tried it again. He has no concern for what happens to his body when he gets in this mindset, and I had no problem imagining him laying down right on top of me without a care in the world.

I finally got him unstuck and gave up the whole "halting calmly" thing to trot it out again.

We trotted nonstop for an entire hour. BM gave another lesson. The girl I was riding with hacked, untacked, blanketed and turned out the horse, and had another one out and groomed by the time I was done. It took every minute of that hour to get Bobby to take a breath, relax his back, and just trot around like no big deal.

Every now and then as we went around, he'd randomly lose his cool and go jetting sideways before getting back to work with no correction from me. It was like his brain would just misfire out of nowhere and then go back to being normal.

Once he was consistently loose, I halted him at the end of the ring again. He was totally relaxed and we stood there on a looped rein for a bit before he calmly walked off when asked to.

I hopped off after that, gave Arthur some thorough belly rubs, and put Bobby away for the night.

"it's time to get off now, human.
i'm in serious need of loving down here."

This wasn't the first time Bobby's used laying down as an evasion to get out of work. He tried it a few times when we were teaching him to drive. It was, however, the first time he's tried it while I was on his back.

Now I know to assuage readers I have to cover all the bases first before blaming it on a brain that has in the past malfunctioned violently and seemingly did the same over the weekend.

• He's been in the outdoor dozens of times since moving to this barn.
• He's ridden in the ring and on trail with all the horses that he worked around Saturday.
• He's worn his quarter sheet already this year without issue.
• None of his tack or boots changed in the slightest.
• He wasn't sore in his back once I got off, and his saddle was still sitting right where I'd put it when I got on.
• He's not lame, and all he was (supposed to be) doing was walking and halting.
• Ulcers? Maybe. 
• A Lymes flare up that made him body sore? Maybe, but again he wasn't actually working yet, and he didn't appear body sore once I got off.
• Mr Tappy? Probably, though while we were halted, I was alternately scratching his neck with the hand that held my whip and the one that didn't, and he didn't once acknowledge it.
• Neurological problems? Doubtful. I've had two different vet offices do neurological testing on him in the years I've owned him precisely for this reason (Vet, is my horse bat shit crazy because his brain is damaged?), and they've never found anything.
• Genetics? Those golden eyes are courtesy of a papa with a well founded reputation for being the biggest asshole to ever walk the earth on two legs because he was too busy rearing to ever lead quietly beside you. Amirite, Sarah? 

So  what does that leave us with? A horse that will occasionally sully up and have a full blown melt down because he can?

I know that won't be the popular answer, but for me--knowing this horse his entire life--it's the most likely.

ignoring the whip, the end of the arena, and whatever
other traumatizing thing he'd thought up the day before
to watch people pull into the parking lot. parked vehicles:
now that's something he's consistently freaked out by.
#NEUROTIC. 

I went back out Sunday morning prepared to do battle if necessary. I got him booted, wrapped (since he destroyed my hind boots), put his quarter sheet back on because it was super chilly out, and grabbed my whip.

I'm a big proponent of ground work, so first things first, we marched over to the end of the ring and stood there for awhile. I rubbed his face, scratched his neck, gave him lots of pats, and told him what a good boy he was.

"whatever. just going to stand here with my mule face on."

He wasn't remotely concerned with anything, so I spent some time running the whip all over his body. That didn't light so much of a spark, so then I asked him to do a turn on the forehand in hand which involved asking him to move his hind quarters over by tapping him with the whip. He did so both directions without fuss, and then stood quietly afterwards.

"whatever. whips don't bother me.
that horse getting hayed in the barn does concern me though."

Since he was so chill, I jumped on him, kept my reins on the buckle and repeated what I'd done Saturday. We walked one lap and then halted at the far end of the ring. Bobby stood quietly while I petted him before walking off with the slightest squeeze of my legs.

listening mule ears don't care.

I repeated the same process on the buckle once again with the same results, and then picked up my reins and came around again. Bobby dropped his head and continued to march forward, halted when asked, and stood quietly, occasionally glancing back at me to see what we're were doing.

"what's all the fuss about, lady?"

After that, I walked him to the middle of the ring, jumped off, and put him away. He won't get ridden all week since I'll be in Illinois, and I think that was a really good five minute mental ride that he can hopefully sit on while I'm gone.

I also think it goes to show how much of Bobby's problem is all in his head. For whatever reason, something will offend him, and he mentally cannot come back down. He keeps getting himself more and more upset over it.

Could there be a real physical issue? Possibly.

Is it more likely he's a difficult horse with certain issues that are unfounded and acted out on in an uncalled for manner? Um, yes.

Mr Tappy goes for a ride along

Mr Tappy goes for a ride along and Bobby's brain slowly oozes out of his head, culminating in a truly epic melt down that harks back to the days of running backwards through fences and over the side of cliffs.

Oh, those were the days. So glad they're not gone forever.

Thursday was very warm--it was almost seventy out by noon, and while Bobby has thankfully mostly halted the mad rush to grow his winter coat back in no matter how often I clip it back off again, he was feeling pretty sluggish.

So I hopped off quick and brought out my dressage whip.

feeling so super excited to be a dressage horse.

Long, long time readers will remember that Bobby had some crazy whip phobia that seemingly developed out of nowhere. For those not super familiar with the history between Bobby and I, I bought him from the college we both went to (Bobby being a part of my breeding class, later a training class I TA'ed, and finally I got him ready to go off to be a real race horse) after he'd had some let down and riding time.

I had him for eight months before I gave him away due to a boarding situation I was in that I had to get out of immediately, and I couldn't afford to move both him and Red to a new barn. When I had to put Red down a couple months later, the woman I gave him to gave him back to me because she's a truly incredible human being that I will cherish forever. (Although some days...)

When I got him back, he was fat and lazy and had pretty much thought he'd been retired to the good life. Thus began a year of crazy ups and downs. Bobby threw a tantrum about pretty much anything he deemed hard. He wouldn't get near ground poles. He'd flip out on trail rides for no reason after walking calmly for the first half of the ride. Any correction I gave him was an excuse to run backwards or sideways no matter what obstacle was in his way.

But the biggest issue was his fear of whips, one he didn't have when I first bought him. There's no way this fear manifested while he was at L's. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't even a whip on her property. I still have no idea why he decided to take such violent offense to them out of the blue one day, but it was there. He'd go so far as to walk by a whip leaning against the wall and lose his mind.

Eventually he got over me carrying a jumping whip. To this day, he takes zero offense to me using it. The dressage whip is a different story. After a lot of work with him, I got him to the point where I can carry one now without him freaking out. He gets tense initially, and I can use it maybe once without him losing his mind (I use it mostly for lengthenings), but if it stays in my hand the entire ride without moving, he usually forgets about it and goes about his life like a normal horse.

so fast. so angry about being forced to go fast.

With that rambling background, back to Thursday's ride.

I got back on with the whip and there was no drama from Bobby. He reacted exactly how I expected: he immediately went right to work to avoid the imaginary wrath of Mr Tappy, and I was really, really pleased with with the ride.

I brought the whip out with me Friday in case it was needed again, figuring I could drop it if he got tense during our lesson. Unfortunately, our lesson was cancelled last minute, but I did do a quick hack in the ring before the other rider and I went out on a trail ride. Bobby was a dream right off the bat. Transitions to canter were quiet, the trot was loose and forward, and his walk was big and swinging.

On our trail ride, he was fine until we came back to the walk after trotting around the conditioning field. He started getting a little wound up and trotting sideways. I'm not sure what it was over, but I sat there with a loose rein and ignored him as I talked to B and eventually he gave it up and started walking again.

not the same creature on the ground and under saddle.
the devil lurks within.

But he stayed very tight and tense, so when we got back to the barn, I took him to the outdoor to trot around a little more. "A little more" turned into thirty solid minutes of doing nothing but trotting figures until he loosened his back and we could quit.

At this point, I hadn't had to so much as lift the whip for anything. It hadn't accidentally brushed him. It hadn't purposefully tapped him. Knowing Bobby though, I had my suspicions he was slowly starting to get upset about Mr Tappy's continued presence.

Tough luck for Bobby because to me, having a rider carry a whip is just one of those life lessons horses need to learn and accept. Stand still at the mounting block, tie, get on a trailer, ignore a passive whip, etc.

Now my goal is to finish what I started a few years ago: the whip is going to get carried in every ride until it's a complete nonissue and he remains relaxed while it's in my hand.

This turned into one of the top three most epic Bobby meltdowns of all time Saturday. Stay tuned for tomorrow because I won't be seeing my horse all week so I have nothing else for fill. Sorry, suckers!