Mixed Feelings...

Ok so its been a weird week. on wednesday night i played with General, he was great online, not excitable or nervous, just attentive and playful. i played for half an hour then wanted a short ride so got on and did walk trot, sidepass, worked on shoulder in, he did great. then i made the (mistake?) of asking for canter. he went into a paddy, bucking and shaking his head, but he has done this a lot before (although not in a while) and ive passed it off as exhuberance so i pushed him on and got some nice canters. however, on my final canter, he exploded! he bronced on the spot about 4 times, did a HUUUGE buck to which i sat (yay!) but i was leaning waaay back, as soon as he landed the buck he reared vertically!! he has never done this with me on board. of course as i was leaning back, i came straight off when he reared as i had no balance :( but the weird thing was, he didnt take off bucking as he normally would if something goes wrong (he's a hit and run kinda guy!), but he stood next to me licking and chewing O.O i wasnt sure what to make of that. anyway, i wasnt hurt so i got up, took his saddle off and fixed it online. i got his mind going again, made it not about the canter, then had one canter on a circle at the end, which he was fine about. we are having his back checked this week and i havent ridden him since just in case. i'd rather rule that out first. i thought it could be his saddle too so we will have that sorted as well. ahh what a nightmare!! you know when you think you are getting somewhere then it goes kaput?!
still, no riding has given me more time to play on the ground with both my partners, so I have done lots with holly this week and got her desensitised to the tarp (before it was a big scary monster about to eat her, now its something useful to keep her dry when its raining xD, pretty much perfected our circling game at walk and trot and moved on to canter. our sideways is getting real good too! ANDDD wait for it... she offered a jump at the weekend!! this is a LBI/RBE (but more so LBI) who always HATED jumping, she hasnt stepped a foot over a jump for over a year, and on sunday, she jumped a barrell without me realising what was going on. i wasnt aiming her at it, i didnt know it was there!! she just chose to go over it! of course she promtly came to me afterwards for a treat ;) very proud of her!! i think we're almost ready to assess our level 1 now! yayy!! at last!!

savvy smiles x