Reset Button

Love love love this photo!

We had a lesson last night and while Peebs warmed up fairly lazily his Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde side came out pretty quick.  When he gets excited, usually over fences, he grabs the bit and I have pretty much zero control.  He doesn't take off, no leaping/charging/running away; he just tunes me out and does whatever he wants.  He was fine over the first few cross rails but then we were to trot in and trot out of a line of x's and he said "See ya" after the first one.  I was able to pull him sideways out of the line but it was very ugly and not super fun to ride.

Trotting quietly is hard

After trainer talked me down we tried it again with a plant to halt immediately after the first fence and go from there.  Again, he took the bit and ignored me but I did get him stopped quicker that the first time.  Then trainer told me to get tough, sit down and back, and do a one rein pulley stop.  It's hard to do that while riding in the fetal position but somehow I managed and he got stopped hard.  There was much head tossing but when we came back around he calmly trotted the first fence, all but falling over it and trotted quietly down the line like the good lesson pony he probably wasn't was.

Jumping boxes like a boss

We managed a few times through the line before trying to string together a little course.  He would start to get quick and/or check out but each time trainer had me stop him hard and it acted like our reset button.  He would go along quietly after that for a few fences then try it again. He never did pull the full out "grab the bit and ignore mom" that he did at the beginning but you could tell he wanted to.  It was hard (read: terrifying) to ride, especially coming off of McKenna who would full on bolt/buck/spin/launch me into the next state.  And to Peebs' credit I never felt like he was going to pull those moves, or like I was going to come off, it just sucks to know that for a few strides you have no say in what your horse is doing.  That his little brain is in control and you really are just a passenger.  It REALLY explains why he was up for sale. But he doesn't pull it all the time, and our hard stop reset button works and I know once I get more comfortable getting after him it won't be as big of a deal.  My friend texted me after my lesson asking how it was, and I could honestly say it was a hard, eye opening lesson, but it was a good lesson.