Spirit can be the funniest of horses. As you can see in these pictures that were taken a couple of weeks ago he is completely relaxed and almost lazy like. Although this last week as I have been taking him outside, down to the river, and then just in the barn by himself he is so very Spirited. For the longest time I wondered why they named him Spirit and now I am starting to find out why. He can be a very lazy horse and usually doesn't care about much but the times when he gets "spirited" is when he is scared. I have usually been able to work with Spirit in the class time til about 11:30 and then I was able to squeeze in an hour or two on my own time. I found that it was not enough and so I rearranged my work schedule and then one of my block classes finished so I have been able to work with Spirit during class times and then about an hour or so almost every day. By doing this I have been able to try a lot of new things with Spirit and have found the times when he is scared so becomes very dominant and spirited. The times when he is scared is when he is left alone without any other horses around or even when I am not there. He also doesn't care for when we go next to tall things or things that he has never seen. When he is scared by himself he jumps around, moves a lot, snorts, has really tense muscles, and even strikes sometimes.

 

Today he was showing those scared signs to me when we were saddling up in the barn. We were the only ones in the barn because everyone else was already riding in the arena and Spirit did not like it. I tried to stay calm myself and be the leader but I found it hard to be so when he started to pull back really hard and then jump forward and start jumping everywhere. I know I am suppose to be the leader at that time but for me I felt like it was not safe so I stepped back and then when he had somewhat finished his fit I stepped in because I felt like it was safer. Then when he started to be dominant towards me I became big and didn't let him step over me. I am not for sure if that is how I was suppose to handle the situation but in the end I was able to finish saddling him and walk him into the arena. Once we were in there I decided that the best way to have a good experience for both of us was to just do ground work. So we did, and I tried to engage him but going around poles and doing a squeeze game and directing his anxious movements into circles or somewhere else. It seemed to work for the most part and I thought at least he never tried to get away from me or completely forget that I was there. So I considered it a somewhat successful day. On a happier note he has been doing great this past week outside. He is still scared of things but not to where he feels he needs to defend himself. That scared I have figured out how to work through and then he is fine once he has seen it and done the squeeze game. When we were in the outside arena on Thursday he was so willing to trot and even go into a lollop and maintain it for a while. I need to work on being a better rider though, because his lollop is one that I have never felt before where his back end goes up more than his front. Then when we went down to the river he listened to me so well and trotted well for me down there. When he did get spooked he was never to where he wouldn't listen to me or listen to a one rein stop. I love the way he listens to me body and I can cue him into a trot or slow him down. So I think now I need to work on being a better leader when he is so scared he feels he needs to defend himself. So we will see what happens.