Play date

 This morning was still chilly so I left their clothes on until I got back from the dentist. And since Kelli was coming over to ride, I wanted to drag the arena. So I took the tractor to collect blankets and then drug the arena. I managed to get Funnys, Lyrics and Fleck's off... but I didn't get Fleck's into the tractor quick enough. Dan grabbed it and I thought.. fine, play with it for a second. Ha ha. Lyric was very curious and slightly terrified. Hee hee... Silly nut!

Kelli came after lunch and we got tacked up in the cross ties facing each other. Dan was mostly good until Marvin moved up a bit and then Dan moved up a bit and then he spent the rest of the time snarking at Marvin. But, I'm trying really hard to be nice and sweet to him and take my time and wait until he settles and relaxes and has a soft expression. And I'm bribing him with cookies. Which, is exhausting and I'm not entirely sure it's working, but it does seem to be helping. We headed up to the arena. I had set up some cavaletti's and ground poles. We did our pillar work and then we got on and did our ride. I forgot to start my phone til a few minutes into our ride, but we hadn't trotted yet, so... I was mostly making sure I wasn't trotting and cantering too much but slowly increasing it. And Dan felt... sluggish in the beginning. But he worked into it and got a little nicer. He felt sloppy today though... he lost one of his hind legs a few times. And he kept throwing his right barrel into me/not wanting to bend right. But it did get better. So after a bit I switched him back to his old snaffle bit to see if it made a difference with his tongue. He felt ... heavier... in the contact maybe? But he was good. He didn't do anything with his tongue and didn't seem chompy. We ended up finishing with some nice work. I even attempted a little more leg yield and tried a tiny bit of half pass at the trot and shoulder in at the trot. And he was super! And the right lead canter got much better, so.. phew! 

So... all in all, a good ride and a good boy. I was too distracted to take photos. 

Then tonight.... jeepers... I'm a terrible mom. No wonder he's such a disaster. I went in to curry him while he was finishing dinner before I blanketed him. And I started off doing my positive reinforcement, only if he says yes thing... And bribing him essentially... And then suddenly.. his face was in my face and close enough that he smashed beet pulp and timothy pellet mash into my eyeball. I have no idea if he was just whipping his face around at another horse... or if he was trying to intimidate me... or trying to give me a friendly kiss and he's just violent with his love and affection. But I LOST IT ON HIM! I was so pissed off. I even yelled at him "I'm trying to be super nice to you but eff you you asshat... I go above and beyond, so fine.. hate me... and I'll just beat you when you're bad"... as I was smacking him with my hand, the curry and the brush. I even threw the brush at him. I couldn't help it. Like dude... I'm really trying my damdest to make you happy. Just freakin' stop being such a shithead! And I know.. he's not being a shithead on purpose.. he doesn't love or not love me.. but it just gets to me so bad. So then I was still pissed as my eye is watering... I got his sparkly crop and went back in. I was like "fine.. you want to play like that... we'll play like that"!. And I curried him, with no regard to his feelings. But that bastard kept his ears pricked and his face forward the entire time. He let me brush him with no pinning of his ears. And then when I went to put his blanket on, he slightly pinned his ears and I whapped him! No sir! And then he was polite with his ears pricked the whole time. Seriously dude?!?! Like... do I have to beat you to get you to like me? I know it's wrong.. I know it's contradictory to my whole recent "happy relationship via consent" plan, but... why??? Why does beating him with a sparkle crop work then?!?! Sigh...