Charlie gets interesting

Ok since we have been having the Bach flower remedies cocktail these are the little things I have noticed.

Charlie has not attempted to dive into the hedgerow and eat Field horsetail when I am turning him out ( he s in part of the day as flies are bad and he is fat.

He sometimes gets impatient when tied up on the yard which is interesting as he hasn't shown this behaviour since early 2012 when I first bought him.

Today I rode him in the bottom field. He was quite naughty. I was doing loads of walk work and changes of rein and suddenly he loaded his shoulder napped towards the track and did a small rear. This was a surprise and I nearly vacated the saddle. I immediately swapped my whip onto the naughty shoulder sat still asked him to leg yield and proceeded in the planned direction. I continued my work and next time we were at the track end of the field he did the same. I growled and said a sharp NO and a deep growl but again put my whip on the loaded side. I didn't need to smack him just look up and ride  forward.

I must admit the temptation was to just do a circuit and get off quick but then I decided we were staying down there until we were both happy.

Suddenly I was gobsmacked after a few of these attempts to nap back to the track no matter what rein he relaxed I was trying to stay soft and positive but suddenly found myself on a relaxed horse with his head dropped so I didn't need to make myself relax. 

I proceeded to ride round looking up and steering him by looking at a tree, a fence, a telegraph pole and talking to him telling him where we were aiming.

 I did a large circle in walk and trot on both reins thanked him nicely and headed back up the track.

On our way back I went towards the blue tarp and poles obstacle which was pretending to be a ditch and he happily walked across it.

Now the interesting thing  is that he exhibited a tendency to have an iffy shoulder last year before it all went wrong. I am now wondering if this was a little bit of challenging behaviour I hadn't noticed because my world was suddenly turned upside down by KS.