Snipperific

Yesterday was another exciting day in the life of Snip... The girls and I headed out on the trail. Sierra was a little soar footed, so we just took the short trail. Up on the top of the hill, where Bro in law, Jesse, has a level pad for his shop, we worked on flexion, backing and making circles at a walk. I loped around a little and then we headed home. We then went into the round pen, worked on some more flexion and on not being sooo sticky at the gate and the other horses. We did run into a little young horse rebellion. In trying to keep him “freed up” and practicing loping he started to kick out. It is a common problem that you can run into with the youngsters. In Snips case it only occurred in the round pen and going to the left. As I would cue him with a smack on the butt he would kick out at my gesture. He was being pretty defiant and getting more and more stuck. Soooo.... I set it up to be the easiest scenario. And instead of using my normal cue, I resorted to the use of the end of my rein. One strong smack with the end of that and he was "freed up". He loped off for four of five strides and I let him come to a stop. I pet him and quite there. Hopefully, we will get to work on it another day. I think that the round pen situation, and the fact that it was at the end of a ride, may have contributed to the kicking out. We are hoping to ride at Coyote Ridge Ranch at the Oaks. The full size arena will help Snip feel like he has somewhere to go. We will see what tomorrow has in store for us.