Complication

Chapter Nine

"Whoa" I try to coax the ancy grey to stop dancing around on cross ties. Today is my first day riding Casper at Two Trees. He's been here since we got back from the show Sunday night and he had Monday off, although I'm starting to regret that now...

I throw the white saddlepad over his back and he takes it as a scary ghost that is going to kill him. He bolts forward and freaks out even more when the cross ties stop him. He flys back and rips his leather halter off like it was nothing.

My heart pounds against my chest, Casper stands, frightened as all hell. His nostrils are flared and the whites of his eyes show. He stands wondering whether he should run from the scary monster or if it's gone.  "Whoa" I try my best to say it calmly. I take a step forward and unclip the Baker lead rope from his halter that's still hanging from both cross ties.

I slowly pick my hand up to wrap the lead rope around his neck when Lucas comes strolling in and drops his helmet.

To Casper, that was the monster coming out to attack him once again so he flys backwards once more and spins out of the barn.

Outraged I spin around to Lucas, "Do you do anything right?" I say before going to find Casper.

He's easy to spy. He's only grey galloping down the paddock line. Thankfully I see him turn into an open paddock. I take off that way and close the gate. He can stay in there for a while, he needs it.

Now exhausted, I start to walk back to the barn. I've noticed that I haven't had a lot of energy these past couple days. And not only that, I've lost a lot of weight. Not that it's that noticeable to others, but I realized that my breeches are loose on me now. I try to think of the last thing I ate and it was a granola bar that I shoved down my throat before quickly leaving the house this morning. 

I finally make it back to the barn put away the broken halter in his trunk next to his stall and walk right to the stall next to it and take out Aspen who stands like a saint on the cross ties.

As I'm tightening the girth, Lucas comes in, "Gina! There you are!" He rushes over to me. "I'm sorry about before, I didn't mean to spook him. Did you catch him?" He shakes his head, his left cheek with a black and blue on it. He quickly continues to ramble on, "That's not what I came here to talk to you about. Listen, I know your mad at me. I'm mad at myself! But you have to forgive me. I know you never liked me before and that's okay but now you aren't even telling me to shut up or making some other rude comment that I know you're thinking. And I find that even worse. We don't have to be friends or anything, but we should at least be able to talk. We board in the same barn for Christ sakes!"

By the time he was finished rambling I already put on Aspens bridle and walk right past him without a word.

***********************

Casper was a disaster from the start. And now I'm tacking him in his stall to prevent another cross tie incident. Even in the safe confinements of his stall, Casper jigs in place as I tighten the girth. "You're going to be fun to ride, aren't you?" I mumble to myself. I quickly throw the bridle on and lead him out to the front flatting arena where I can see Lucas still riding Harvard.

I debate going to a different ring but I don't want Casper to see jumps just yet and this is the only ring without any. I would go into the indoor but Brandon is giving a lesson to another adult that boards in the other small barn. I've met her a couple times, just by running into her walking into the courtyard. She's a nice lady that owns a major business of her own and has a string of horses that she'll get on every so often. She wears the best of the best and I've never seen her with a hair out of place.

I try to settle Casper down as I lead him to the mounting block. He looks around with his head high and his nostrils flared. I get him to the mounting block and before he could move away I throw myself on him. At first he had no idea what was happening.

And then he did.

He flys backwards at a million miles on hour then spins on his hind legs to turn around and bolt. I didn't even have a chance to put my feet in the irons so I latch my legs around him. "Whoa" I make him stop but of course he's still dancing in place. I put my feet in the irons and when I look up I notice Lucas has his horse parked in a corner, watching me. "Ugh" I grumble, not in the mood for this.

"Casper, listen bud." I talk to him, fully aware that I sound like a crazy person. "You need to calm down." I ask him to trot and he throws his head before automatically going into a high frame. His stride is long and comfy, I ask him to leg yield, trying to get him to mellow out. But I have a feeling that no matter how hard I work him, he's always going to be the same. At least when he's moving and has something to do he's not as bad. I don't know what to do when it comes to jumping. I barely got around that course the other day I don't know how I'm going to be ready this weekend to show him  yet again.

I just have to figure what his preferred riding style is,  I think as I start to do figure eights all over the place. If I figure out how to ride him the way he knows, the way he's been trained, then I know we could get far. Whether I made it over the jump or not, there's something about him that I love. Something about him makes me think that he's got a lot more than 4ft in him. If only I could quiet him down to the fences.

I ask him to canter and he spurts forward and throws an mini leap/buck before picking up the left lead without another problem. That got my mind turning. I ask him to walk and he jigs before finally walking. I squeeze my legs to ask him to trot and he kicks out, annoyed, but then picks up his trot and trots perfectly around the ring.

I ask him to canter again, sitting up straight, a tiny bit of pressure on his sides. He throws another buck before cantering normally around the ring.

Wanting to inspect this further, I come across the diagonal and ask him for a lead change. His ears pin flat against his head and at first I think he won't get it but then his ears swivel forward and swaps his lead. I come across again and the same thing happens. The weird thing is that it's not really delayed. I'll put my outside leg on and the second my leg touches his ears do back for a split second and he changes his lead immediately.

So why does he have to complain so much to do something when he perfectly knows what to do? He could just be full of energy but I think it's much more. He's got an attitude. He'll do what you want him to do but only if it's on his terms. Him bucking, leaping, or putting his ears backs makes him think he's choosing to do it. Or at least he won the fight by not doing it perfectly. He's stubborn and has a giant personality. And that's probably why we get along so well.

Now That I think about it, when I was showing him, I would ask him to slow for the distance and he would complain then reluctantly slow. But always too late to really hit the right distance. So if I ask him to adjust his pace earlier then we would be able to hit the right distance and maybe then he will start to trust me more.

There's only one way to find out if my theory is correct. But when I look down at Casper's neck I realize that he's covered in sweat from head to toe. I check my watch and am surprised that I've been on him for an hour. "Whoa" I say to him. Of course he has to speed up in annoyance, then come back to a walk.

He stretches his head down when I give him a long rein. Huh, I think, Maybe all that work actually made him tired.

As my feet land on the ground my legs feel like noodles and I suddenly get really tired. I planned on going over to Justin's tonight after I ride Harry and take care or Zara, but maybe I could cancel...

No. I haven't been able to spend that much time with him and I'm going to take what I can get. I'm just going to have to do a quick hack on Harry and groom Zara instead of taking her out. I know she already got turned out with Zelda today so It's not going to change anything.

I sigh and my muscles ache as I walk Casper back into the barn to get a bath.

*****************

A/N: Have any feedback so far? Please comment!

Thanks for reading!