I don't understand him sometimes.

Saturday a friend came out to ride Riv.  Started off tense and giraffe-y.  Put out a single ground pole, he kept jumping it.

Put out two ground poles.  He started settling down.

Elevated the ground poles and placed them 3 canter strides apart so we could try doing a line for the first time.  He quietly trotted over them and was relaxing and reaching for the bit afterward.

WTF?  He is the exact opposite of my other horses, who are nice and pleasant until the poles come out, then they go nuts.

An amazing thing happened... he cantered on the right lead (right as in opposite of left, not synonym for correct, although it was also the correct lead) almost an entire way around the ring!  This is much more exciting to me than it probably should be.

Here's a video of him doing the little line:

Yay!

I almost rode him this morning.  Then I remembered the tractor is parked in the corner of the indoor, so I longed him instead.