Rotten Horse

I think that Brig must not want me to sell him. He must know that I won't put him up for sale until most of the major problems are dealt with. I don't want to sell a bad horse and possibly give myself a bad reputation as a horse trainer. So, Brig is being bad so that he won't get sold. I don't actually believe that but it's better to think that than to admit that maybe I've missed something in his training somewhere. I took him down the road yesterday to the larger ring to ride. It was really hot so I wasn't planning on doing much with him. I just wanted to work on leg yields a bit and maybe take him to the river again. But he was really bad. He tried numerous times to buck. Anytime that I asked him to stretch his head and neck down he would get excited and act like he would buck. So, I would make him bring his head and neck back up for a while. Then, he would suddenly spook and spin and run with his head in the air in the opposite direction out of control. He did this many times even though there was nothing to actually spook at any of the times. The things that he may have had reason to spook at he didn't even notice. I am actually a bit surprised that I didn't come off of him at any point yesterday . When I asked him to canter the first time he tried to buck again and then once we were in the canter he would periodically ignore where I was telling him to go and would try to run off in another direction. I think that I'm going to have to ride him there more often to get him used to different places, arenas and noises. I will have to take him to other arenas as well. Especially if I plan to show him in August. I certainly wouldn't want him to do that in a warm-up ring with other horses or during a dressage test. I never did end up taking Brig to the river or working on the leg yields. I was pretty sure that attempting either one would be a waste of time. But he did get worked pretty hard and was soaked with sweat by the time I was done. At least he's not a boring horse. He was really good on the road again both there and back. I'm glad because I sometimes get a bit nervous about roads. Sugar used to be nervous of large or scary vehicles so it always made me nervous too since I didn't know what she might do. But riding Brig and Portia (the mare I just finished working with) has helped me to feel more comfortable and be more confident on the roads. They are both so calm and unconcerned about vehicles that it wouldn't make sense for me to be nervous or worried. Brig has also been great the past couple days about letting me hose him off after riding him. He stands totally still (as long as I don't do his rump, then he moves a little) and he lets me hose him off. He even lets me do his head a bit (which is good since he has so much white on it to clean before shows). So despite the fact that he can be pretty rotten at times he still has a lot of really good qualities. Hopefully I'll be able to train the bad ones out of him.