Normally I wear two shoes at the barn

Wednesday

Our lesson went fantastic. I am so glad I have decided to invest in quality instruction instead of blowing that money on a bunch of horse shows for a while. We'll still do little local shows to get exposure, but no USDF or "serious" shows until probably next year or even 2012. Anyway, my instructor said that in just one week's time we have made significant progress. This of course made me feel good. We worked more on forward forward forward as Hampton's way of being naughty is too coil up, suck back and then trick me by getting "stuck" in the corner. He's all like "If I pretend like I don't remember how to steer, she'll let me stop here. muwahaha!"  My instinct is "Oh crap we are going to crash into the fence!" and therefore I try to turn him way too much with the inside rein - when really I need to use outside leg and just let him turn himself. Horses don't like to hurt themselves, so I kept telling myself we are not going to crash, kick him on through the sticky corners and let him do the turning. This worked in the trot, but canter is still sticky. I'm just a little too half-hearted yet to really get after him. Not sure if I'm scared he will be bad or what? Anyway, something to work on. Did a couple of decent canter transitions - both leads. No bucking, but some wiggling going on still. We also worked on teaching Hampton the beginnings of a half-halt. Lots of halt, trot, halt, trot. Some halts had to be pretty hard, and then decreasing as he got the message. Still need to work on that to sharpen it up some. Going to switch his bit for sure, as there might be some palette interference going on. His happy mouth is just a single-jointed bit, and he'll be switching to a french link or Dr. Bristol to help with that. So basically, still just working through the normal green-bean garbage that has to be sorted out but will pay off big time in the long run. He's been so fun to ride, getting more fit and really starting to figure out the aids. I'm so proud of him. And just for fun, we trotted over a crossrail (see above). He stepped over it like a champ and didn't even hit it with his feet. What a champ.
Thursday

It was cold, raining and gross and the horse needed a day off anyway. However, when I brought him in he spooked at something right as we were walking in the barn door. He SLAMMED into my right shoulder, almost knocking me down and even my shoe went flying. I managed to somehow hang on to the lead rope as he went cantering off and reeled him back in. So there I was, yelling colorful language while backing him up - one shoe on, one off - while students at the barn watch in horror. Ooops. I mean, normally I just ignore spooks and go on as if nothing had happened. But almost mowing down your human is unacceptable. My shoulder is quite sore, as is my wrist. It was probably somewhat my fault as I was just a little bit in front of him (not by as his shoulder as you are supposed to lead), so I didn't stay mad at him for long. Plus, I think he was a legit spook. Something really frightened him, he wasn't been an ass. But still, he should be more afraid of me. I'm going to chalk that one up to a "3 year old on a cold windy day" moment. But yes kiddos, make sure to lead your horse properly! This is one reason why. Duh.