Another Legacy

Wet and gloomy weather kept me from riding for a few days, but tonight was riding night with R!  Her old guy was a total superstar, even after an extended time off.  I elected to get on Lar without lunging him first, maybe not the best of ideas since it was especially blustery tonight.  He was a little skittery around the corner by the trees, though it was hard to tell if he was being spooky, or acting out because he wanted to hang out with our riding buddy instead of working independently.  He totally remembered how to move his hindquarters to leg pressure at the halt (turn on the forehand), which was great.  We're not there in motion yet, but I'm glad he remembered so well.  He's also improving at downward transitions with less pulling on the reins.  He's still moving hollow and strung out, not on the bit at all, but now he's not pulling against me as much at the trot.  I thought using treats to help him learn to bend his head and neck around to each side to rein pressure while under saddle might help him get the idea and it worked - far too well.  After that, he would try to stop, no matter what we were doing, and turn his head constantly, looking for the reward.  Perhaps as a racing strategy, his driver should have had an extra long whip with a carrot dangling from it.  I really think it would have worked!  He did show his lazy and stubborn side tonight, though, as he would sometimes decide that he didn't want to walk (or trot) forward and would just park himself.  He even hopped up when I pony kicked him, though I ultimately prevailed and we finally moved forwards.  I have a newsflash for him; we redheads are a stubborn lot, too!