Melt Down

It was finally decent enough for E to ride Wrangler this weekend.  

 But first we had to hike up the "Stair Master" to catch him.  I've told J that if I ever asked for a Stair Master to just send me out the front door.

 Anyway, things started off ok just the usual up and down with his head.

 He was trotting out a little faster than normal but no big deal, we were outside in a bigger ring with the wind blowing, so I expected a little different than in the barn.  Then things went down hill.

E was having trouble making him go and he would keep jerking his head around like he wanted to bite her leg.  This was behavior I hadn't seen from him before.  I decided to try him and he just got worse.  No forward and constant biting.  It was a total melt down.  I would get off and lunge him and he would go fine.  Then when I got back on, same thing.  I finally switched saddles (I had brought Pep to ride in my normal training saddle and E had her show saddle on Wrangler).  After the saddle switch I was finally able to walk, trot and canter both directions with no stopping or biting.  However, when we got back to the barn, I rode him around in there a little and he just stopped and backed into the wall and wouldn't go.  I finally got him going around again and stopped on a positive note.  I usually only ride 30-45 minutes, but all of this took over 2 hours.  I haven't had a chance to ride him again yet, but I sure hope this isn't something that I'm going to have to deal with every ride.  What a pain.

Kid Count - 21