Training Diary: 4 January 2005

Kip was a combination of horribleness (insisting on travelling sideways, pigrooting, refusing to bend) and wonderfulness (moving very forward in a gorgeous outline) last night in my lesson. He’s the classic case of when he’s good, he’s veryvery good. At the end of the lesson, when Tracey was working in canter on Cookie, I decided to let Kip follow along behind her and “accidentally” canter. I gave him the verbal command to canter, and he shot straight up in the air in a perfect courbette and then shot off like a rocket. As soon as I had him back under control again, I could hear the trainer’s very dry voice saying “That may be a bit too forward.” lol…no kidding, but at least the bugger was finally moving! :) She said that Cleveland Bays have a reputation for being stubborn and difficult (translate: total pig-headedness) at times, even though they do have calm, sensible minds. Or, as one article I read put it, they tend to be “independent thinkers.” Hahaha – that’s one way of putting it.