Old Habits Die Hard

     Well, it's been 3 weeks, it's about time Stryker threw a fit. He was... very challenging today. His old habit of fighting my forward aids reared its ugly head today. My warmup trot went fine, it was when I asked him to canter that he planted his front feet and kicked both legs out behind him. I took him forward and asked for the canter again and he did the same thing, only multiple times. Mrs. P had me get off and put him on the lunge because we thought (because this kind of behavior is really out of the ordinary for him) that he was in pain. However, he trotted and cantered beautifully on the lunge. Ugh, I was so angry when he stretched out and went forward on the lunge line, I knew that meant I was going to have to get on and he was going to do the same thing and I was going to have to work through it. There were two times I lost my balance and thought I was coming off, but I didn't. When I got back on after lunging, he immediately did the same thing, planted his front feet and kicked out behind. After this happened a few times I shut down, got intimidated and just didn't want to challenge him (which of course is the complete opposite of what you should do). Mrs. P came out into the arena and put him on a lunge line with me on him. Stryker, being a smart horse, trotted nicely, challenging a few times only to be chased out by Mrs. P.
     Being on the lunge line gave us an opportunity to work on my seat and position a bit. I was being corrected on my legs rolling back and forth and my hands wanting to float up, as well as me wanting to curl my right wrist and flatten my hand. I've been working on keeping my legs up against the knee rolls and my calves draped around the horse and quiet. When I can get my legs put into that position, its painful but I sit SO much better! Anyway,  the one time he really objected on the lunge line was when we asked for the left canter. He sort of tossed out a rolling buck and ran forward.
      I finally ended up being able to trot in both directions without the lunge line and with him accepting my forward aids. I still want to get him looked at by the chiropractor. I'm sure he needs an adjustment, after the trailer ride and him being ridden more then at home. I also think that some of his challenging is due to my seat. In the trot-canter transitions I think that I put my outside leg too far back, and I either fall forward or backwards and then I lift my hands and in exchange he drops his back and inverts.
     Either way I am facing this again tomorrow and no doubt he will challenge the same way he did today. Wish me luck!