I rode him Friday and Saturday. It takes a while to get him figuring out contact and giving, but he was better the second day.
Saturday was pretty entertaining... there was a lesson going on when I rode. A western lesson. The type of western where the horse moves as slooowwwllllyyyyyy as possible, and then a little bit slower. Meanwhile, I had to dismount and ask the instructor to hold River so I could go get my whip because Princess was not moving forward or off my leg. So you've got Mr. Slow Poke western horse jogging... and then me and River, probably looking like we were careening wildly out of control in comparison. And me clucking and growling and smacking Riv to make him go MORE! It's not a very big indoor, so it went like this: Start trotting around, circle at A to avoid running up on western horse, trot on, circle at C to avoid running up on western horse, trot on, circle at A......
It was the first time I've ridden him with another horse since we moved and he was a very good boy. At the end, I let him walk around and we practiced not stopping at the gate going back into the barn. He really likes to stall there, apparently hoping I'll get the hint and put him away. The first time he stopped, I popped him with my whip a couple times, and he tried to kick out! Which got him a good kick back from me. We circled past the gate a few times, with me carefully not touching him so he would be free to stop if he wanted to, but he was smart and didn't try to stop again.
Hanging out in the aisle waiting to go back in his stall:
Unicorn boy!
His enormous stall:
The pictures don't adequately show it, but this stall is huge.
Oh, and good news! I have a volunteer to canter him for the first time! Which means I'll have to longe him a few times and work on canter departs...
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