I wound up riding Billy quite late tonight as my day filled up with other things. As a result it was getting to dusk and we had the outdoor lights on casting shadows. This made him less confident than usual, but he still passed all the pre-flight checks with no real problems.
Once I mounted however he became quite difficult to ride. He was making it clear that he was not happy with my leadership in this new environment. Lateral flexions went OK but on the first few he still tried to bite. I countered by just waving my leg around until he pushed his nose into my toe and got bumped. Note I did not aim for his nose with my boot, just waved it around. He tried to bite it so moved into the toe all by himself. The physical result is the same as if I had kicked him, but the psychological difference is huge. As he in effect did it to himself he did not harbour a grudge towards me, just sighed relaxed and stopped trying to bite. One such incident did not cure him of course, but the improvement after two or three was huge.
He really did find walking the rail difficult with the dusk light and we had a big spook in one corner with a little canter across the school. A one rein (rope) stop soon calmed him down to a nice halt however. Not having huge amounts of riding experience I was pleased that I reflexively did a one rein stop, it would have been so easy to pull on both which would probably resulted in me being bucked off.
He just felt on edge for a lot of the ride. On several occasions whilst at halt I felt his hind quarters rise up as though he was going to poop, but nothing happened. After some more edgy riding he finally pooped. Afterwards the difference was amazing. He was so much more relaxed and comfortable. We did a bit of figure of 8 as a calming pattern having concluded that the edges of the school were to spooky in the half light. A nice 9 step backup and a few acceptable indirect reins. With that I decided that we had a relaxed left brain Billy and it was time to quit.
Once I mounted however he became quite difficult to ride. He was making it clear that he was not happy with my leadership in this new environment. Lateral flexions went OK but on the first few he still tried to bite. I countered by just waving my leg around until he pushed his nose into my toe and got bumped. Note I did not aim for his nose with my boot, just waved it around. He tried to bite it so moved into the toe all by himself. The physical result is the same as if I had kicked him, but the psychological difference is huge. As he in effect did it to himself he did not harbour a grudge towards me, just sighed relaxed and stopped trying to bite. One such incident did not cure him of course, but the improvement after two or three was huge.
He really did find walking the rail difficult with the dusk light and we had a big spook in one corner with a little canter across the school. A one rein (rope) stop soon calmed him down to a nice halt however. Not having huge amounts of riding experience I was pleased that I reflexively did a one rein stop, it would have been so easy to pull on both which would probably resulted in me being bucked off.
He just felt on edge for a lot of the ride. On several occasions whilst at halt I felt his hind quarters rise up as though he was going to poop, but nothing happened. After some more edgy riding he finally pooped. Afterwards the difference was amazing. He was so much more relaxed and comfortable. We did a bit of figure of 8 as a calming pattern having concluded that the edges of the school were to spooky in the half light. A nice 9 step backup and a few acceptable indirect reins. With that I decided that we had a relaxed left brain Billy and it was time to quit.
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