Naughty Koda!

Tonight was an interesting ride!  I drove out and pulled Koda out as usual, tacked up and off we went.  Nothing was different but I didn't have my half-pad on (may be important later on...).  As we head down the road Koda is going rather nicely, just plodding along.  The BO's pony is having some hot to trots going on and she's dealing with a touch of a handful.  Ironically, once we turned back for home, it was Koda's turn to be naughty.... much more naughty.

"Who, me?"

We were walking, and Koda gets antsy and fidgety on the way home, wanting to get home as fast as possible.  This is a new issue that I'm dealing with this winter/spring that started when I first started working him again.  This time he actually legitimately bucked a few times in a row before I got him around, the jerkface.  At this point I thought - ok, need to figure out a way to tell this horse that trotting when I want walking is a HUGE no.  So, I decided to trot him off away from home (and his buddy) every time he tried to trot.  It was working in the beginning until he cantered off instead of trotted, caught me off guard so I went to slow him (aka - grabbed reins) and he had another MAJOR tantrum.  I saw the road and I thought I was going down, but I stuck somehow!  Haven't had to stick like that for a while, so I'm thankful I still some of it.

At this point, I thought "ok, not doing that again, let's try something else."  I took a note from BO and her pony, and started marching Koda in the smallest circle possible, almost like a turn on the forehand, until he decided he wants to go my speed.  Once I adopted this strategy, didn't have any other tantrums since the moment I felt Koda try to start anything, we were on the circle.  What I wanted was a nice walk home on a loose rein.  The moment we halted after the circles, I'd ask him to walk off on a loose rein.  After a few of these moments, he seemed to settle and click in.

More work on walking home properly and getting fit is in our future, my my he's got a hay belly on him!

I still love my boy!
Please note - 8:15pm and it's still sunny out, plus it's polo season!