Yesterday we rode.
In the interests of time, I decided to do a more dressage-y school ride. Creature thought we should explore the open gate instead (I told him otherwise).
We did lots of walk serpentines to try to warm up; he was wiggly wiggly and either overreacting or underreacting to every little cue. Eventually got up to some fairly nice and balanced trot circles tracking right, but he fell apart when we went left. Sort of got it back together so that at least he wasn't throwing tantrums and wasn't quite as much a giraffe (I do believe left is his worse direction and I'm afraid I don't help that much) and called that good for a break. The very good thing is that he wasn't tripping over himself. He'd had his trim a week ago and was still a little sore (hate 8-week trim cycles), so he had front boots on and it made a difference. Very good because I don't like to die falling off tripping horses.
Did some more trot circles to the left, trying to get him on a decent bend instead of drifting all over Timbuktu. Again, we got better but not yet what I would like to see--I know he can do better. Took another break and then decided to work canter right. He ignored cues for some time and then threw his head down, got corrected, took a giant spooky leap sideways and up, came down and tried to bolt. Fortunately I had the sense by then to yell at him and he listened and stopped. Got the trot sort of back together again, tried again and no jumps but neither would he really think about anything except running into it. Got a bigger circle (2/3 of the arena type circle) and finally he agreed to put in three or four strides. We did that twice and then I called it good. I know he can canter beautifully under saddle on the lunge, so I suspect it's a conglomeration of balance and mental issues causing his problems right now.
He was super sweaty afterwards so he got a nice shower and time under the fans before he went back out. Hard work figuring all this mess out.
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