The whipping boy

Last week the weather was a mix of 90 and 60's. I took advantage of the one hot day and gave Laz a nice liniment bath and scrubbed him down, knowing it would probably be his last bath of the season. He used to hate baths, and he now really enjoys them. Just stands and lip laps at the water

So, yea..well, I guess I got yesterday's dirt off.

Someone was literally quite pleased with himself

"Now i reelly cleanz"

Mid week I saw a 5k and a 10k race in Kensington, which is the park I board near. I thought, HEY, this is perfect..we (Billy and I) could do this together and Laz had a farrier appointment at Noon. 

Run, Laz, Lunch-YES!

So, we did. 

I have a love affair with Kensington and I thought it would be the coolest place to do my FIRST 5k in.

It was! The race was small but soooo beautiful and fun. So many positive, encouraging people with Cider, fruit and sandwiches at the end. Oh, and a medal, and an UGLY sweatshirt that I will literally cut into for rags.

After our race.

Billy is an avid runner. I is not.

When I ran (well, when anyone did) across the finish line, they announce your name/age/where you live. It was very cool. I know that isn't new ..but for me, it was!

I ran as much as I could, but walked a lot too. Finished in 37:54

Billy after his 10K cooling off along the lake

Then it was time for Laz to get recasted. We did the same double cast and he grew about an inch of heel--HOORAH!

***

Sunday Funday!

J9 and Kaspin  came to meet us at our barn for a hopeful trail ride. It was raining so we decided to just play and see what transpired. We didn't want to get caught out in a storm/downpour especially since Kaspin is a newbie at trails.

Can you believe that I randomly met J9 at a clinic about 4 years ago and we live about 1 mile apart and board about 20 minutes apart. Crazy. She's been SO awesome to us in our Parelli training and just overall support! I just adore her.

So, we warmed the boys up in the front pasture.

Laz was giving me some indications that he wasn't pleased that his pasture mate Pito wasn't around

Here he is handsomely staring at Pito

"HALP!!"

The sun poked through so we decided to tack up and do a bit of road riding to help expose Kaspin.

Well..Kaspin was TREMENDOUS from start to finish. J9 has done some amazing things for him, it's truly remarkable. I had thought "Ohhh, we will be soooo good for your newbie boy because we do this allll the time" 

Boy did I eat my words. Laz acted like he has never left his pasture. EVER.

He literally would put the brakes on, try Quarter horse spinning around and ignoring ALL my leg/rein asks to want to go back to Pito.

He was 100000% ignoring me.

I was beyond frustrated and embarrassed.

Thankfully J9 helped me through it and we FINALLY got Laz to lead  er FOLLOW the 'newbie' Kaspin who thankfully wasn't feeding into Laz's high strung behavior.

 Yes, that's me below, with a whip/crop made of a branch.

That I used. A LOT. ughhh

I had to literally "beat the sh*t" out of my horse (I kidd of course..wait, do I?) to get him from stopping swirling around to try to run back to his pasture. It was ridiculous. He was not scared, he was not in pain, he was truly wanting to be sour.

I would gently ask for him to continue forward. He would ignore, I would ask again, he would ignore following with a "I'll just turn opposite super quick" and I had to crop his shoulder until he turned to where I was asking. I ended up having to match his intensity which I hate doing.
But it worked and he ended up shaking his head, processing it, and settling down a bit more.

I had to take many mental breaks. Pauses. I wanted to reset him as well. I would start again. Asks and suggest and then TELLS. The reason the 'tells' came into play??? 

He literally ran INTO a mailbox and then broke it off. 

Ya, don't worry...I didn't at all feel like a DumbA## leaving a note in their smashed box of "Sorry my horse rammed into your mailbox, I'm happy to pay for repairs"

He kept ramming me into tree branches, or would step too close to water pipes in the ground. He literally was acting up one of the worst ways I've ever had him do.

I don't know what got into him but I do know this; for a while now, he's been testing me and Sunday it blew up in my face.

 We just continued down the road, and worked on going forward, and listening to my cues. J9 suggested turning around and walking and then circling back and walking him opposite and he FINALLY calmed down and listened.

Even the whole way back, he felt slightly annoyed with me and much more fast paced than when he and I ride either alone, with Mason, or with Pito.

It was just off. We were off. I was sooo disappointed that I had to crop my horse and even more disappointed that he was not listening to me

We did end it all on a good note, with the two boys grazing on our return, so we dismounted and ended it. Kaspin was an A+ student and Laz was a pot smoking D student. 

Scratch that. Laz is an A student..his teacher (me) failed him.

I have a lesson scheduled this week to help me work this kink out.

It was eating at me ALL day yesterday. So much that I was telling my Husband about it while we walked the pups. He really didn't get it until I said "It's like in a heated game of Basketball, and your star Forward asks your Guard, in front of you as the Coach, what play to play?"

He was like "Oh.  Wow."

Anyway, I had to really work on letting it go. I actually saw this and decided, in the end, he did make good choices. It just took awhile.

We'll see what my trainer is able to offer me for this behavior so I can earn his trust and confidence during our rides, at any time. 

Build the partnership instead of us fighting 

He clearly wanted to be just be back in his pasture with his friend and not listen to me. I want him to be able to make decisions but then also trust when I need to make one for us.

After all, this is a team sport.