Clipper Update

I rode Sunday instead of Saturday because my good friend Tanya came over so we could celebrate her recent graduation with a BA in business.  This means that Clipper had not been out for 2 days.  I should’ve turned him Saturday afternoon after Tanya had left but I have come to expect my trainer and her assistants to handle all the details since I pay them an exhorbitant amount every month to handle all the details.  Needless to say, Clipper was a little ‘up’ when I got on him.  He looked for horse-eating monsters while we walked around the arena so I got off and had the groom longe him for a while.  He was quiet for a little while, a very little while, then spooked at all kinds of things he has seen nearly every day that he’s been at this barn, things like one of the dogs the trainer brings every single day.  So instead of working on a nice slow canter like we had, we worked on getting past the oh-so-scary geriatric dog who has trouble getting up, even if he wanted to chase anything.  Once Clipper would go past the geriatric dog with only a little wrestling on my part, we tried jumping small jumps that he has jumped at least 100 times.  On Sunday, however, those harmless little jumps must’ve grown fangs.  I pushed him over the jumps when he’d slow to look for fangs.  He tried running out on another little jump but I pushed him back and made him approach it then we jumped it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth until he finally gave in and decided it was easier to do what I wanted than to keep arguing with me.  We ended on a nice trot in, 6 stride line where he trotted easily in, cantered softly out and landed on the correct lead.  I was exhausted after that ride because I had to fight with him almost every step of the way until he decided to cooperate on that last line.

This morning I rode again.  This time when we went into the arena he walked around with his head down and looking like he was kind of sleepy.  Something, maybe a beetle crawling across the arena, woke him up then he spooked at an empty paddock and one of the stall cleaners.  Neither are new to him but he uses them as an excuse to rebel.  He trotted over the warm up jumps just fine then we headed to a new trot in line.  He trotted in fine but didn’t like the canter out fence so he stopped.  I made him go up to it then we went again.  He didn’t stop but rushed over the canter fence and tried to run away.  Hard stop, back up, walk, trot nicely, approach the first fence in the line, jump, start pulling, whoah, easy boy, then JUMP over that fence.  Better this time.  We tried it a few more times and he got softer each time, didn’t rush the last fence.  He’s being a little rebellious but we work through it and end on a good note, where he’s listening to my instructions and being soft and adjustable again.  We build on that.