Bad ride.

Today was a regular mess. We started off in the roundpen working on turns on the haunches from the ground. Everything went fairly well until the other horses got put out to pasture, at which point Sammie went ballistic. After I longed him in a few circles and got him thinking again, we went out for a walk on the road in search of things to densensitize him to. We found some old purple flowers and a plastic bag. Neither fazed him too much.

After our walk, we went to the arena to school. He would NOT stand still for mounting *headdesk*. I checked his tack and made sure that everything was all right. Nope, he was just being a pest. A few expletives later, I was up and we were off. It was windy today, so we started off slow with a nice walk and worked on flexion and some circles. I asked for a trot, and it was like he had the hounds of hell at his heels. His little brain had shut off and all he could do was go,go,go. And toss his head, of course. Circles, circles,circles. Twenty minutes of them...ergh. We got a lovely bend to the left, but it was like trying to flex a brick wall on his right.

Eventually, he relaxed, so we went back to the rail and worked on walk-trot transitions. He was good for those, but every time we went around one of the corners, he'd cut into the corner and try to scrape me on the wall. That didn't fly. I tried leg-yielding aaway from the wall, staying on the inside track, popping his shoulder, walking him into the fence- no results whatsoever. How can he be so good one day and such a monster the next? Truly the mysteries of the green horse are manifold. (Ha ha. It's fun trying to sound smart :P) We finished off doing this little ground pole "grid," and one last leg yield through the corner. It took us ten minutes for him toyeild. It was painful. I used all the aids I normally use and really tried to scoot him over with my inside leg, but it took us a while to get it. Once he did, he got numerous wither-scratchies and a good boy.

I feel like I may have been a little too rough with him today. I got a bit frustrated with his trying to rub me into the wall and probably used a little more force than was necessary. I shouldn't have ridden, considering the way the day started, but I did, so what can I say? Next time will be better, hopefully, and if it isn't, it's time for me to examine my riding habits.