You work with the horse that shows up

And you hope a different horse shows up the next time!

So we went from, Tule-doesn't-have-a-canter-in-the-arena, to, Tule-only-wants-to-canter-in-the-arena. Talk about your difficult situations. I'm so glad I've learned to deal with what he dishes out. I'm not about to imply that I can take anything he might throw at me, but at least I've gained enough confidence and control to handle him up to this point. In lesson on Sunday I was told my balance and seat have improved a lot, and that's such a good thing, because I sure needed it yesterday.

I had to hold him back for a loooooong time, tried to wear him down as much as possible and it still didn't work. He wanted to RUN. So when I finally said, okay, if you want a canter that's okay, he went to buck buck buck buck little cowhopping canter strides that had me with so much air between my tush and the saddle...well it was game over.

I told him if he wanted a run we'd run up the hill to the gov't gate. He didn't want to do that, he wanted to run in the arena. But when we did get a ways up the hill he didn't want to turn around and come home either. Silly horse.

I decided a little trailer loading practice was needed too. BAD idea. Tule wasn't having any of that nonsense. He loaded so nice last year when we moved him...but that was, I think, sheer desperation on his part to get the hell out of that other horrible place. So now we are back behind square one, and it's just not going to be any fun for a while.

Oh well.