Inside - winter's coming!

I rode indoors for the first time this summer today because it threw it down with rain just as I was about to go out with Jazz. The good news is that in spite of the tiny space he is game to try flying changes, and because of the tiny space he is forced to balance and stay with me. He also gave me some lovely elevated trot with a few strides of medium, so I am less depressed than I was about not having been able to get changes and medium solid before I had to give up riding outdoors.

Radar was a complete berk! I got on him and tried to walk around and he was just crazy - he kept running away. This was very unexpected. He has been in the barn twice before at least, and gave up behaving like this on the outdoor arena several weeks ago.

After nearly hitting his head on the wall six or so times, he agreed to walk properly, and did some lovely work on a beautiful contact with a relaxed flexion. Only to start the whole palaver all over again in trot. I have lost count of how many times I ran him into the wall to avoid yanking him in the teeth to make him stop!

I did lose my patience in the end and pulled him up hard when he ran for it. Pretty soon I had a decent trot to the right but, you guessed it, when I turned him round to go left he started all over again. By this time he was tired and tetchy, but I need to get it through to him that bolting will get him nowhere so I kept going until he gave me a quiet trot on that rein too. He worked it out in the end and did a couple of really nice relaxed trot/walk/trot transitions to finish.

I think he has learnt a big lesson about listening to me today, I hope so anyway, because he needs to. If he behaves like that out hunting we will be sent home!

C.