Elvis has left the building

Hauled Mason home yesterday.  WOOOHOOOO!     We went for a trail ride at an open space just 5 miles from where he is boarded.   He was pretty good for his 12 yr old owner.   She had to use the crop a few times to get his head out of the grass after pulling over for the bicyclists but I think he was very much back to his normal of when she got him and she had a blast.   On the way back when we hit trail that was not rocky she started having him wait (and eat a bit of grass which he loved) and then canter and trot to catch back up to where we were.   Then she would hug him as she had him stop and eat some more.    Having her enjoy riding again like she was the first year she had him at least as I was hearing via the internet made it worthwhile.

 Now I cannot help snarking on what his former owner wrote.

"But he went from being worked several times a week by me,with a consistant daily routine, being moved constantly by his alpha mare to having 300 acres and no other horses to keep him in line."
Heh,  I remember lots of angst posts of how she would get too busy to ride for a bit and then it was sooo hard to deal with him feeling fat, lazy and sassy.

"Consistancy will help, but Mason is looking for an alpha." (she was a sissy leader IMO and would often fold rather than getting tougher whenever he challenged her strongly)

" I never used spurs with Mason, I would ask gently with my seat, then leg, then a swift pop with a crop. He was always slow. Usually the second time we went through that he would respond with just the seat.  He isn't green, he is testing her. Until R steps up and believes she is the alpha, he will continue to test her. jMHO"    Yup pretty much and it does not help that he has experienced partial success with challenging human for alpha when being ridden.  Although she do a great job with groundwork and would lunge him or stuff when she was nervous to ride him and that did keep him a decent horse that will be fine with a confident rider, rather than him starting down a road to becoming an outlaw that escalates resistance if the human gets after him so good on her there. 

  It was not hard to straighten him up when he gave me guff with a crowhop.  After the first couple of rides when I was more confident that he wouldn't escalate a few tight circles while using the crop on shoulder or flank depending on whether my crop hand was to the outside or inside of the circle as the consequence for a crowhop would result in an obedient horse the rest of the ride.

I do think the 12 year old girl may find spurs a very useful aid for this horse so she doesn't have to always use the crop to say "pay attention to my seat and leg aids" and can reserve it for correcting him when he is really blowing her off because he doesn't want to get his head out of the grass or is trying to scare her.