XC Lesson - 6/2/07

Well, this lesson was extremely educational, although it was one of the "three steps back" lessons.
I was warming up Mercury outside, where he was continuing his ear --> sideways head --> stiff, quivering neck --> full on jump. When Bob got out, he asked us to canter each direction, first with a defensive seat (sit up very straight and deep, keep your knees closed, legs close), then in a two point (where I immediately just throw away all contact, which is not correct). Mercury was fine, but he kept stumbling.
So we talked about the stumbling. Bob said it's permanent. Unlike in my head, where I have made up excuses for it for a year and a half now and how it will surely get better, Bob says he's just not ever going to pick up his own feet and move them. He said there is absolutely nothing that I can do to fix it (over the course of the next hour, I kept coming up with ideas which he kept saying no, like "what about if I smack him really hard with the stick when he stumbles?" and Bob pointed out it would just make him lurch away really quickly afterwards, not stop doing it). He also said that watching him move, his back left leg crosses over and that's the source of the other stumble, and why he can't move out. His right leg kicks his left leg. I believe Bob phrased it as "one of Mercury's many problems."
So we went out to jump the cross country jumps, and did some riding around in the field so Mercury could look at everything.
We started with a little log, and immediately after the first jump he stuck his head way up in the air and started charging around.
So in case my evil mean hands were punishing him by coming back too soon, I was thinking about keeping them way forward after the jump, and he did it again. I think this time a horrible scary crow/raven (I can't ever tell which) went flying off from the other side of the fence, so he also used that as an excuse to freak out. We jumped it from the other direction (headed towards the barn) and then we tried me deliberately giving him his head when he was tossing it. That worked once, then the second time he just took off. We moved to a couple other jumps and a couple combinations, but the head thing was getting worse and worse. When I finally yelled "I AM giving half halts!" Bob said, wait a minute, come over here.
Here's this lessons revelation: the flash noseband was too loose. Because the leather has stretched since the last time I poked a new hole in it. And Bob said there's no point in going on, he's just going to continue to fight, you're going to continue to develop new bad habits that need to be fixed (i.e. his head tossing), and you could make it much worse if he starts doing it in front the jump.
And I said "Well, what if you rode him?" and he said "It won't help" but got on him, and although Mercury looked better, he was still really, really naughty and Bob didn't even try to jump him. It was really interesting to watch from the ground, because I could see him open his mouth to be bad (then lift his head), and I could see when Bob gave a half halt, it was correct for a second, then he would open his mouth so he could move his head forward.
So I put new holes in the flash, and Bob says we have to go back:
1) Bob rides him a couple times for an attitude adjustment
2) Then we go back to dressage
3) Then we start working him in running martingales over poles
4) Then stadium jumping (he said he wasn't as bad two weeks ago inside because he doesn't have room (or as many excuses) to stick his head up and run)
5) Then cross country
I basically don't have time to do all this before the next show, so I'm not sure what will happen.
This is frustrating because he's been fighting me (and spooking at everything) the last couple weeks, and I noticed the flash was loose, but didn't think anything about it. I could have avoided all of this by thinking to tighten it myself.
Oh yeah, and Mercury has a fat neck, so he needs to lose weight. His neck balls up when his head is in the proper position, making it uncomfortable for him to maintain it. That's the purpose of those neck sweats (I always thought it was to keep their hair short), but you also achieve it by working on the bit (with the uncomfortable neck).