Wanting to have Ransom at his best for my lesson with Barb, I gathered him and his dressage supplies, and off we went to the arena.
Brief warm up at the loose rein walk, and then I went into bendy circles, serpentines, and changes of direction at walk. He was a little stiff & stubborn, so we moved up to trot, still on the bendy and changes of direction. As he began to loosen his muscles, so did his mind. A little canter on circles, and I gathered up the reins.
Ugly. Ugly were his up transitions until I got some force in my body & got a little angry. Then they cleared up. Horrible – the down transitions. I tugged hard asking for walk to halt. Finally he realized that walk to halt would be pretty. Trot to walk? Forget it! Not happening. Canter to trot? Now those were the most beautiful, but of course they were. It was hot & humid out, and he wanted more than anything to be done at the canter.
I put about 40 minutes into him before we both got burned out. He didn’t want to be working, and I got sore arms from arguing with him. He was leaning on the forehand at trot, and doing all he could to pull those reins outta my fingers. Too many days doing too little work.
I was concerned. Was it even worth the trip up there? It’s a two and a half hour drive! If he’s being ugly with a day’s turnout, how much worse will it be if I don’t let him do whatever he wants after a long trailer ride?
Nevertheless, Barb has always been polite & accommodating to whatever Ransom will give us. I loaded up my things, cleaned out the trailer, and got ready for Saturday’s trip.
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