Kassian Lesson 8/14/12

Yesterday I had a lesson on my lease horse Kassian (Kass). It was my first ride on him in a week since I was off in Washington for USPC Quiz Championships, and I was expecting quite a bit of testing on his part. Our warmup was like usual. he was sluggish and testing me to see what I would do to get him to move forward. 

As we were trying to establish a nice, forward walk, he saw a horse walking by the arena, and it was apparently very frightening. Grunting, he took off sideways and I lost a stirrup. I gave him a smack and made him trot. It was very obvious that he was trying to get out of work (and trying to scare me into doing so). Kass is one of the most bombproof horses I know, and he wasn't even phased by an old, puffing tractor pulling a tree behind it that was  only about 20 feet ahead of us at the time that it happened.

My instructor, Christina, commented that Kass was looking out of shape, and so maybe that was why he was getting creative on ways to get out of work. Anyways, we continued to work on transitions and getting him to move forward and on the bit. We did some cantering, and he was very nice about rounding up and moving forward. Such a good pony! 

We did some trotting, practicing some extensions to medium trot, and back to extending his trot. It was a lot of fun! We took a break for him to catch his breath, and Christina and I talked about how to quickly and effectively switch your dressage whip from side to side. We resumed to canter departures. 

Kass didn't agree. He thought that he was done with his work already! He kicked out and did a little rear. I gave him a good slap with my whip, and he resumed to kick out and popping his rear end up a little. He finally cantered, but on the wrong lead. I didn't care. I made him canter very fast and was very hard on him. He then did a swift lead change! Nice! We cantered some more until he would become on the bit, and then we came back down to a walk to end the lesson.

It was an exciting lesson but at the same time productive. On Friday, his owner and I are taking Kassian trailering! It will be a test run to see if he will be good for me in a new place. If he his, I will take him to the Woodside Pony Club Schooling Show! I can't wait!!! :)