One second I'm cutting across the short diagonal, the next I'm hanging on for dear life as my horse leaps magnificently into the air, props and attempts to bolt. We've got enough miles that I felt it coming and didn't get rattled. I sat up, halted, and looked over to the door to see someone looking horrified. Theo heard them walking on the ice outside of the indoor and lost his mind. It was a pity, he has so much more energy when he's sassy and we were getting some great work.
I dropped my reins to let Theo's brain reset while the teens yelled commentary about how cool Theo looks when he does that. Yeah, yeah, it's great. I'll be feeling that in the morning. Jerk.
I worked him hard, then Trainer A worked him hard the next morning, and then his other rider got on him. And he dropped her. A little drop due to dropping his head and shaking it after a jump, but still. Don't drop her! We need her!
So I got on him today and did what I could when temps are at 23*. I don't want his respiration up much, I don't want him to sweat, but I still need to get the energy levels down. Ha. Ha ha ha. I went for forward trotting with bits of cantering on a long rein over 12 inch fences with walk breaks after every 4 fences. Wash, rinse, repeat. It certainly did the job. He never got huffy or sweaty, but he was noticeably happier and calmer by the end.
He did squeal and leap in one of his changes, but at least the change was clean? It was Trainer A's favorite, but it might have been because of the noise he made. Seriously, he's a porpoise complete with really high pitched sound effects.
Hopefully he'll be done with this soon. I don't need a lot of reminders on just how big and naughty he can be.
I also ride a land porpoise lol
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