hmph - not happy frank

well, i've stayed motivated and arranged to have a lesson on tallic this morning. also arranged to try norm's judy dierks bridle on him, as i'm having so much trouble finding a bridle (it didn't suit him, noseband is way too big)
i supposed i already knew there was a pretty big chance tallic wasn't going to be forward and obedient in the saddle today, due to the fact that he didn't have another horse going around with him for company (pj was in the round yard). and, sure enough, he wasn't forward or coming off my leg aids as he should be. ground work was ok, but not startling.

• norm straight away noticed that i didn't have a good connection with him, so the main objective was to keep a slightly outward flexion, or at least feel, to keep him straight (we all know that straightness is the key to SO MUCH)
• the go button just wasn't really there, even halting and backing up seemed to achieve little
• i tried just using the tap tap tap method, which worked to an extent, but not when he decided to be a right pig
• tallic was stopping in places and just not going forward. pushing, kicking and tapping got me quite large pigroots
• had even more trouble in the trot work on the right rein, where he kept trying to leave the arena and was completely ignoring my steering attempts. putting the whip in my left hand and tapping on the shoulder was a good idea; when it was in my right hand i was using it to tap the hq's across (that often resulted in stopping and pigrooting - little sod!)
• even going around on the left rein he decided there were 2 spots where he would just stop. i decided to be very non-cronfontational and just put the reins in one hand, and go tap tap tap until he decided to move forward again. this is something i've learnt from our float loading sessions - getting bigger with him doesn't seem to be a great idea, so i tried to copy what i'd be doing on the ground. i really don't want him rearing on me again. so now i'm not sure whether i'm being too wussy with him, or whether the annoying tap tap might be the right way to go. i suppose i'm trying to think what elsa would do with him in this situation. they don't seem to make a big fuss about anything down at the AEBC, just keep on tapping, so maybe that is right?? at least that way he's not pigrooting etc and he does decide to go forward. it did eventually work with me getting him to trot past the points where he'd been stopping

well, i'm feeling sick about all this. so much for animals making you calm and happy. maybe should've stuck with budgies as rosemary says!!