I'm really starting to like that beginning half of that blog title, might actually be something I might carry on with. So today's events have again confirmed something I already knew, Legacy hates it when I tell her no. If you haven't gathered from any of my previous blog posts Legacy likes to get her own way and typically will find somewhat of a way to say no I want it this way if I tell her no. 
This is something which we have worked on, on the ground (the post The magic halter) and something she has surprisingly adapted to, but once again like in my previous post ( The horse that hates the school ) she isn't liking listening to me when I'm on her back.

After my last riding session and then lesson after went so well (We're back on track) I got on her to ride with confidence and motivation to get her working which started out well until we had a little hiccup of going the same way around a jump wing as my mum and Cloudy which once stopped she wouldn't turn away. After a little fight I got her out of the way of Cloudy and any crisis was averted until I got her back on the circle working and asked her for trot. She then said no I want to canter and it all went downhill from here. 

I said no to her and she didn't like that which resulting in her taking off with me around the arena diverting jumps and jump wings while I'm still trying to slow her down. I don't think she liked that I was still trying to tell her no at this point as she decided to stop rear upright to which I ended up holding around her neck, come back down for a small buck rear upright again but this time she did a bit of a jump forward as her back feet also left the floor then she went back down and did a bit of a body shake which finally got me off resulting in her throwing me against the arena fence just missing the 50/50 chance of landing on the horse on the other side of the fence in the field next to the arena. And amazingly she didn't come back down to stand on me because I spooked her on the floor. This is all what my mum told me what happened, I have no recollection of what happened from the point of thinking I'm coming off to when I'm back standing up after I've hit the floor.

I'm definitely feeling like it's 2 steps forward and 1 step back with her at the moment. If you weren't reading back when I first started blogging, she did the exact same to throw me off the last time she did it nearly 2 years ago now. This time is doesn't result down to her being in the stable at night and having loads of conditioning food like last time. Unfortunately it's not that easy to fix this time. 
I'm really thinking about getting someone in to sort her out and give her a 2-4 weeks schooling with someone who will show her who's boss and is strong enough to deal with her when she says no.

The Horse That Hates Schooling...

As a follow up from my previous post the magic halter where I talked about Legacy's manners and her stubbornness. I'm happy to say she is now a dream on the ground, she'll happily walk into her stable even if I stop and then ask her to come in. I've even tried this is a general nylon headcollar with no pressure points and she's a different horse.

Due to the training of this she's had pretty much 2 months off work, just being in the field getting fat and coming in for grooms when Cloudy comes in. We're still not 100% on being on our own in the stable, but again we're making progress with that. 

The other day I decided that enough time off was enough, it's the summer and I wanted to ride while I still could, soon as they come in at night time the amount of riding I can get done is down to my 2 days off and I have to hope the weather is on my side or nothing gets done. 

So I took her down to the arena for a little 15-20 minute school. The first 5 minutes of starting to work she's fine and this is the same every time, there might be the odd time where she's happy to work longer than 5 minutes but it's never any less that this.

After the time she's happy working, it all stops. She's very rarely does anything bad it's mostly she just stops and decides to plant herself there, whenever I try something to get her working it usually results in her throwing her head up as if she's saying no!

I have tried many different ways to get her back working. 

I've tried:

Squeezing her 

Kicking her (although I can't give her a good kick cause she tried to kick my food then)

Using a whip (which she also tries to kick)

Using a whip whop (which doesn't work cause it's too soft)

Circling her one way then trying to walk her forward the other way 

& Using my reins on her like I would the whip whop, this works but only for a step or 2 then we're at it again.

I've tried doing transitions with her in my warm up to get her 'into' working, but that just results in a small fight getting her to move on after asking her to walk. I can get a nice trot out of her after she's warmed up and at times I'll get a little explosion of wanting to canter when I ask for trot, these days I can get her working nice when she's worked through the 'explosions'. I've had to stop cantering her due to her not being balanced in it just yet as I'm trying to get her more balanced and working well in the other paces first but I'm not getting anywhere. 

I just find it so frustrating as all I want to go is get on her and be able to school her and learn new things together, like movements and jumping. 

The head position in the picture blow is how she holds her head when she's first in trot before she relaxes.

She often gets her back check, she has her teeth done yearly and she's recently had a new saddle, I've even tried changing her bit. So I've ruled out all of the physical aspects of any pain or problems. 

If there is anything anyone would suggest I could try to try and work through this please let me know.

 I can't school her out on the road hacking as she is the same on the road, when she doesn't want to move on she won't and this can result in her being in the middle of the road having a moment. So not only does she hate schooling, there's no hacking at the moment either.