The boy was an absolute booger today when I tried to longe him. Ear pinning, kicking out, you name it. So needless to say, I can't let that sort of thing slide. A pop on the butt for each kick and an upward transition for each dirty look put him right in a few minutes, but after that display, I really wasn't in the mood to ride.
I brought out my dressage whip and worked on some shoulder in voltes, a la Sustainable Dressage (http://www.sustainabledressage.com/rollkur/shoulder-in_volte.php), simply becuase it's a good exercise and it gets him to loosen up a little. Then we worked on turns on the forehand and yielding the hindquarters. We got pretty good at those-he'll turn if I point the whip at the top of his rump. (I tried to pick a place that wouldn't really interfere with riding.) We tried to work on turns on the haunches, but he wasn't quite as good with those. Eventually I got a few decent turns out of him, gave him a cookie, and turned him out in the grassy round pen while I got a snack and talked with one of the other boarders.
We did ride some today. The bulk of it was flatwork and working on my overall position, but we did do some low crossrails at the end. He has such a cute jump on him and he really stretches over even the little jumps...oh, and we cantered!!!! No freak outs today, hallelujah! I can't wait until the two of us are ready to do some bigger fences, but before any of that happens, I need get back into lessons and have the vet confirm that his knees are closed. I'm so paranoid about that...which is why we stick to little bitty stuff. He's almost five, but still, rather safe than sorry.
Anyways, overall today went very well despite its not so hot start.
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