The only thing wrong with him was that when he rounded corners, he insisted on bending to the outside, and no matter how much I put my legs on and worked the reins, he just looked even more to the outside.
So finally we started to have it out over this.
And you know what the little bugger did? He completely changed direction on the wall! Like he spun his entire body around and changed directions, completely ignoring me kicking him to go the other way and pulling his head around to the middle.
I was so livid.
That's when I realized that the reins were crossed underneath his neck.
Yep. When I had thrown his reins over his head, they were twisted so that when I was pulling on what I thought was the outside rein, it was connected to his mouth on the inside.
This is why he was so fantastic under saddle because of the way the bit was undoubtedly working his mouth and because he was on freakin' edge that I was going to rip his mouth off.
This is also why he insisted on facing the outside. Because I was pulling on that rein ever so slightly to encourage bend to the inside (combined with my leg signals to completely confuse him).
And this is why when I argued with him he changed directions. Because that is what my hands were telling him to do. And when faced with the choice of me breaking his jaw or kicking him harder, he opted to save his mouth.
Luckily, I was relatively gentle and noticed after only a few minutes so no harm done.
Sigh. How I haven't ruined this horse yet is beyond me.
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