November 27th

Yesterday, Bekka and I woke up at 7 am and drove out to the farm.  She was asked to jog a thoroughbred filly that came off of the track last week, and is prepping to run next week.  The filly's name is Devil, and after Bekka was legged up the trainer looked at me and said "Well, I'm glad she agreed to do this, because nobody on the track will touch this filly."

Despite Devil's reputation, she went well, while a friend of ours jogged Katie around the track with her.  After the filly was put up, we played with Katie a bit over fences, and she was a total rockstar, jumping probably the best I've ever seen her.

Gali was next, and he was a total jackass.  I wasn't that upset with my ride, because despite the fact that he was popping his shoulder and dragging me out of the figures I was trying to execute, he was working on the bit and from his hind end more in our few good moments than he has in the past, I could clearly see that he was straighter.  One thing my trainer mentioned in our lesson was that she notices people are so focused on lateral work and getting the bend, but she really likes to get the horse working on the bit when they are straight, because then they'll excel at the other work, and you won't have to fix anything that gets sloppy as a habit.  I totally agree, and I can really feel now how Gali is straightening out.  When he gives me those good moments his movement is so huge and powerful, and I can really feel him so much better than when he's "on the bit" and overbent.  He's really resisting straightening out, and he over bends and uses that to pop his shoulder, and despite the fact that he tucks his head, he's totally faking it.  He had me fooled.  I know that because we are undoing some bad habits now, he's going to put up a fight, but I told my trainer when I went out to see him today that I'd rather him be difficult while getting some good work in than for him to be perfect for la-ti-da riding,  That's partially true - I wish he'd be normal, like Katie, when asked to work on the bit, but I know that comes with hard work.  I'm willing to put it in, and I hope I don't get frustrated and ruin our rides in the meantime.

I went out to see him on my way back from school today, and he seemed perfectly happy to just eat treats, do carrot stretches, and get his itchies scratched, without having to go in to The Barn and be worked.