John asked Malcom to leave the speakers, so he will ride him with the sound. He thinks (like I do) that it is the speakers, and the sudden noise, and that it likely comes from something on the racetrack. He said that after last time, he rode Duke near the radio, but couldn't trigger the same response. We'll also try the noise muffling ear bonnets. When I said that it isn't all speakers, John said that it's the location of the speakers. The ring at Caber was right next to them (while the other rings aren't), at Aspen they're up on a hill, at Rebecca they're only in warm up, and at Spokane they're right next to the warm up. So it's the proximity too.
The other fix was that I was right to put him to work, but I shouldn't have given him a break. It's possible if I had kept him going (I misunderstood how many horses were before me before we went in) he might not have thought "whew, I'm done" and then been so angry when he went back to work.
And the last suggestion was to drop my feet out of the irons, to kind of snap him away and make him think I'm getting off.
John said it isn't about me as a rider, and that when Duke did it to him at Spokane it was 4 minutes of frozen, and he (John) couldn't get Duke out of it. But he said Duke's advantages outweigh this, and we just have to figure out a workaround. He said I'm the screw up (my words, not his) on cross country and jumping, that's on me, but this is 100% Duke and some past traumatic event (in Duke's mind).
