Friday and Saturday Rides

On Friday I tacked Cisco up and lunged him before riding. I took him straight down to the scary end. He desperately looked for the Land Shark that he knew was there, but the doors were still shut, so after a bit he gave up. Sort of. He still looked to the outside when he passed the door, which caused him to bulge in towards the center of the circle, and thus me. Poking him with the lunge whip in the shoulder doesn't do much to get him out - the threat of the Land Shark is too high.

He was more settled than he had been all week, but still not what I would call relaxed. He wasn't great at the mounting block about standing - I'll have to do some sessions just on that in the near future. Thankfully Pony Grandma was there to help hold him so that I could get on.

Cisco's brain was in his head enough that we could walk. But we couldn't steer at all. Baby horse has a week without being ridden, and can't remember anything. We did do a lot of steering though, as a way to try to keep him concentrating a bit on me instead of wanting to stare at the scary end. Lots of changing direction, not a lot of going around the outside.

Trot was forward and nervous. He kept feeling like he might scoot, so we continued on the lots of steering and changing direction pattern.

After about 15 minutes. it got better. The trot slowed and wasn't so erratic, and steering came back a bit. Not as good as it could be, but I still considered it a win. So I left it there.

Saturday brought some wind with it. So there were a couple of good spooks at the scary end when I lunged Cisco. But overall, he was better than the day before, and a bit more relaxed. Just a bit.

He was also much better about the mounting block. And our steering came back!

But we had no forward.

I mean, he trotted. But he wasn't what I would consider in front of my leg. I hadn't started with a dressage whip, as the last few rides he has been too forward so I haven't carried it. At one point, he really started retracting his neck and sucking back, which was not a feeling I liked too much. So I picked up the whip and tried to just get forward.

We got a couple of trot laps each direction and I called it a day. I was wondering if part of the sucking back might be that his quarter was running out since he was lunged first, and wanted to make sure I ended on a good note.

Before I hopped down though, we walked a couple of times into the scary end. Thankfully the Land Sharks stayed in their hidden location, so Cisco was able to survive for another day.