No Longer the Golden Child

The golden child's halo slipped a bit on ride #6. 

I had gone into the ride with the plan of just working on getting him trotting forward, with the goal of being able to trot a full lap of the arena. Turns out that was exactly what was needed.

I've always said that Stitch has more whoa than go, and I figured that getting him going was going to be my biggest problem. He has a natural engine behind him once he's moving, just convincing him to get moving might be tough. 

He'd had the Wednesday off, and I was hoping he wouldn't go too much backwards. Sometimes the greenies seem to forget everything after a day off.

He seemed ok at a walk; still remembered how to steer. 

Eventually, I picked up the trot to the left, starting at the end opposite the gate. He picked up the trot fine, trotted forward down the long side towards the gate, and stalled out as we approached the corner. I asked him to trot again, got no reaction, ramped it up a bit, dug in my heels, and up popped his back end. 

Very much the toddler equivalent of no, I don't wanna.

Very much not acceptable. As cute as it was, I can't condone it. 

It's also not a complete surprise that he got sticky at the gate - the first couple of times that I lunged him at that end there was a little bit of a hissy fit about the expectation to keep going.

I had my assistant stand in the end with the lunge whip to help encourage him through the short end, which got him through the short end, but then he stopped and planted his feet on the other side. 

Enter Mr. Tappy.

I kind of figured he'd be a horse who would need to be ridden with a whip, but was hoping to not have to do it so early. But if that's what it takes, so be it. 

Mr. Tappy worked his magic, and Stitch decided that he could keep on going. 

We ended up doing a lap and a half at trot in both directions, so that we could go through the short end twice and we didn't come back to walk on the long side until he was trotting forward.

And then he redeemed himself by figuring out his first steps of turn on the forehand.

This horse is smart. I need to make sure I keep him thinking that this is fun, or he may choose to use his brain for evil.