Still Lame?

I think Gali's still lame.  I'm sort of in denial and hope that Bekka can get on him this weekend and see if it's just an "I'm going to suck back, screw going forward!" attitude.  I went out and rode after class tonight, but by the time I got down there, it was dark.  I turned on the lights in the ring, and put Gali on the lunge and walked and trotted him in both directions.  He was very well behaved on the lunge and looked mostly sound, but when I hopped on he immediately felt off again.  I trotted him in both directions, on contact and on a loose rein, and he felt better on a loose rein but still not 100%.

I hope hope hope he's just faking lame.  I probably should have gotten on his case a little more tonight, but he was spooking at the shadows and there was a young kid on an OTTB in the ring getting led around, and he kept trying to follow the other OTTB who was cantering laps around the ring and I didn't have time to push the issue.  He felt off, I felt bad pushing him when I think he was obviously telling me "No, it hurts."

We did have a mounting manners lesson.  It was... interesting.  You'd think for as much as I drilled the game into his head when I first got him, he'd get that the point was to stand still by now.  It took 5 tries before he stood still on a loose rein getting on from the left, and after half a dozen times he still didn't get it completely on the right side.  I was running late to meet my parents for dinner, though, so I just backed him up the step that he had moved, and made him stand still on the buckle for a few minutes before I called it a day.

Not gonna see him til Wednesday morning... maybe, maybe Tuesday night.  Blah.