Deep breaths

To no one's surprise--not even my own, although there was definitely that honeymoon period of wishful thinking--now that a certain stunted grey horse is starting to get new muscles, and become comfortable in his routine, and is being asked to do real grown up horse work, a whole new side of Opie is being revealed.

Don't get me wrong. He is still very small (which doesn't have much to do with anything, I just like to make fun of him), and his tantrums are hands down the least impressive I've dealt with from all my past horses, but holy shit can this horse annoy me.

the extent of his naughtiness, but his neck is the exact length to fling his head
directly into my face and he does a lot of neck flinging. little fucking cobra.

We've had three or four rides in a row now that have been a lot of teeth gritting--or grinding on Opie's part--and deep breathing to stay in touch with my inner zen.

Friday was our first lesson, and I was glad I had the opportunity to let BM get on the week before. Being able to say, "You know how he does this." or for her to point out, "The way losing his shoulder makes him feel like that." is a big help for me. The focus for the lesson was the canter with the walk and trot work in between being there as a "Can you please chill the fuck out and get the fuck over yourself with maybe a side of stretching your neck one centimeter?"

We started with the left lead which Opie usually picks up without difficulty. I was able to bounce questions off of her on pace and some other things I wasn't sure I was doing right. Since I have such a hard time processing a stream of instructions as they come at me, she simplified the rebalancing and half half work to simply hold two, release two. It can't get much more remedial than that, but How TBIs Affect Your Brain Cells is a post for another day.

Using my body (mostly my shoulders as I'm still in half seat for the canter) definitely got him slowing down and starting to shift his weight back, and I was able to tell the difference when he was going correctly to when he was coasting along on his forehand. That seems like it should be easy, but he's so light in the contact that he's very much unlike Bobby where you knew he wasn't working over his hind end because he was yanking you down into the ground.

would prefer to fling himself bodily into the incorrect lead than walk.

To the right, she had me thinking of getting out of the way of Opie's giant right shoulder by sitting more to the outside. That's been working fantastically, and while he's still not a hundred percent in picking it up the first time, it's been a lot easier.

Doesn't sound there's any real problem there? There's not. It's all the in-between that's been driving me fucking crazy.

better fling my fucking head around because Reasons.

Typical of a young OTTB, he gets to do the cantering and then the cantering is all he wants to do. Whether it's anxiety or anticipation, we've been focusing on making the walk and trot breaks all about relaxation. I can pick my reins up and it doesn't mean I'm about to ask you to canter. I can give you a longer rein and push my hands forward and I'm not asking you to speed off. I can put my leg on and it's not a cue to go.

I don't want to get into a pattern of picking fights with him like I did with Bobby because the baby Jesus knows we lived for fighting with each other. However, there's a space between being too passive and being too aggressive and its trying to wave me over from the "You're being walked on by this baby horse" abyss. Does he deserve a pat and a neck scratch for whipping his head up, gnashing the bit, and trying to lunge into the canter just because we passed through a corner? I don't think so.

I finally gave him a five second Come to Jesus Carly during yesterday's ride after one such incident, and wouldn't you know--all of the above came to a screeching halt. He curled up and went into his fake frame, but the trot was beautiful and rhythmical, and I was able to actually work on getting him to take the rein out without all the ridiculous dramatics. At the end of the ride I had a horse in my hands with the best stretch he's offered so far.

not stretching, but still cute.

This morning I walked him for ten minutes before giving up and pulling out the longe line and side reins. His back was locked up, and he was twitching over every noise and paying attention to everything but me. The longe was exactly what he needed. He got some stupids out, but was able to end with his focus on me and a quiet trot. When I got back on, he was in the mindset to work.

I did only one canter to the right, but he picked it right up without fuss and gave me one whole lap of a balanced gait. I let that be that as he also then went right back into the trot on a long rein without trying to scoot off or fling that fucking front end around.

I switched his bit again to a loose ring with a half moon mouth piece. It's hard to tell what he actually likes or not. If he's being a pissy pants, he's going to gnash his teeth with anything. If he's being relaxed, he doesn't do anything with his mouth. I'm on eggshells with his mouth anyway as he's got a couple of craters going on in there right now (which seem to be healing great, by the way--they look gnarly but healthy) so I feel bad for him. Plus he hasn't been floated yet (and won't be until his gums are fully healed) so who knows what else he may have going on inside there.

is your mouth open because your teeth suck or because you're just an angry beaver?

So: gnashing teeth, yanking the reins, being a venomous snake with his head and neck, trying to burst forth into the canter at every opportunity, and/or refusing to take the contact are what I'm working with here.

Are they the end of the world problems? Are they any different from any other baby or green horse problems? Are they problems he can't be trained out of? No, No, and No.

DOESN'T MEAN I STILL DON'T WANT A PERFECT BABY HORSE AGAIN.

we end every ride with a perfect baby horse so do i really have any ground to stand on?
no. but bitching is part of the training process, pretty sure.