Just get through it...

This time it has been even longer between posts... I'm totally guilty, but it has been a really busy week!  So last Thursday I got on Alex again, this time by myself.  We went into the "scary" arena and boy was he a ball of nerves!  To be fair, there was a lesson going on in the other arena, someone riding on the track, geese in the field next to us and a horse grazing across the way.  Still I don't like excuses, so I knew we just had to get through it.  Alex was tense and head up in the air like a giraffe.  He spent a lot of time trying to shake me loose.  I growled at him, urged him forward and smacked him in the shoulder with the crop trying to be confident and tough.  Same routine going the other direction.  I let him canter a few strides and he behaved himself, so I called it a day. Then after all that work, I had to go out of town :-(  I really wanted to stay home and keep working, but my grandmother's 85th birthday was beckoning. 

Monday I was so hopeful we could go back to work, but unfortunately my real job demanded a late night, so Alex would have to wait.  Tuesday night I arrived at the barn, ready to go and found my horse with two very swollen back pasterns and fetlocks....great.  Long story short, I had just added some alfalfa pellets to his feed and he was allergic to them!  FINALLY on Friday, all signs were go.  So after a short lunging, I was back in the saddle again.  Alex was not as tense, but definitely still trying to shake me loose.  He was also adding some bouncing and a few attempted bucks to the routine.  One thing I can say, our rides are never dull :-)  So we got through it... and that is what I think we're going to have to do for a while... just get through it.