Crazy Canter

Last night we worked in the lower arena.  Bentley never behaves in the lower (large) arena and has almost gotten me off a few times there, but we have slowly been working it back into our comfort zone.

My theory has always been that the shadows confuse and/or scare him since the lighting is very different than in the happy upper arena.

We started out walking around and just getting him to pay attention to me.  Halts were almost impossible and would take us 50% of the perimeter of the ring to complete for the longest time.  As he settled, I started giving him a longer rein which I think actually helped our halts.  We have been working with the Nurtural bridle and I have been figuring out what signals work best.  He doesn't seem to notice when I keep a tight rein and then try and halt, as much as if i just let him motor off at a lightning walk and then ask for the halt gently.  I am going to work more at getting him to slow with my other aids.  So far this is working but he still gets distracted in that scary ring sometimes and the long rein doesn't do it.  We will just keep trying!

Eventually we were able to calmly trot around the ring, circle and serpentine, trotted nicely for almost 10 mins straight.  Best he had ever done in that arena.  So it was time to try cantering.  First lap around, the Silver Bronc came to the surface and we bucked all the way down the long side of the arena.  Lee wasn't pleased watching from the ground, but my thoughts were "hey we are going straight and forward!"  and all I could do was laugh at his antics.  Saddle ended up right on the shoulders, so we adjusted, got back up and tried again. I never let him get away with tantrums!

This time around there was no bucking, he has a very easy tell when its going to happen and I was careful to let him know it wasnt going to be tolerated.  Perhaps the funniest part however was his "race" with his shadow.  Every long side, his shadow would stretch in front of him, he would focus on it so intently and I would feel him really digging in, trying to race past it.  A couple of the times I am sure we were at full gallop in the arena.  Lots of fun, but unacceptable in the indoor haha.  Eventually he cooled his jets (I started doing large circles instead of the track to keep him from racing) and with a lap of nice cantering we called it a night.

I dont think I even tired him out, he was all excited in the crossties as we were untacking and pestered me for treats.  Hes going to make one great endurance horse!

Here are some pictures from the other day!