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Interesting week, I have continued working counter canter to normal canter figure eights. Pee Wee has been less than cooperative with his work this week. He is becoming quite nappy and is backing as an escape from work. I have had quite a few bucks and rears out of him. By keeping continuous pressure until I got the right response, I managed to get him circling a lot better with good impulsion and low head carriage. He is quite a lazy little horse and needs a lot of encouragement to keep going forwards. Once he is switched on he really is quite easy to ride, however it is easy to give up when he starts his rodeo sessions. I think the important thing is to forget what is going on underneath and just keep riding forwards.
I have a better understanding that Pee Wee's issues are more to with his mind state than any physical reason. He has a very old spur wound (created by a previous rider) that is in the area that he is sensitive about. Now I could try and avoid putting too much pressure on him, but this I believe will only worsen the problem. He needs to work off the leg not against it.
I will continue with the current program for a few more sessions until I start to see some improvements.
