I Can Haz Happy Horse?

For real. Like, legtimately.

I don't know what's going on, but I'll take anything I can get right now. I went up and worked Ernie and Stella both last night. Stella must have eaten some sugar packets or something, because she was off the wall. I started off attempting to long line, realized I had a hot and crazy mare on my hands, and decided to let her off and get her stupids out before we went to work. Boy, did she. Booking around the ring for 10 minutes at full gallop speed, bucking all the way. After that she was great. We even conquered some ground poles, and got some very lovely, suspended trot over them.

I was hesitant about Ernie. I told myself before I got up there that I had to keep an emotional hold over myself: if he started out crappy, it was OK. He would get better, but only if I convinced myself I knew he'd get better. And he did start out crappy. Really crappy. Head up, back out, breaking to canter, sketched out by everything crappy. But I stayed calm. I praised him every time he even thought about lowering his head and reaching for the bit. I guess it worked: he was able to navigate whole lunge circles around the ring while on the bit and moving nicely forward. It was a wonderful change from what I've become used to. It took us about 15-20 minutes to get there, but I figured it's a win either way.

On that note, I've noticed a definite change in his attitude. He's still paranoid as always, but I can tell he's making a concerted effort to believe me when I say everything will be fine. This includes when I take Stella away to go work, and he comes to the stall doorway looking worried. I can say, "Ernie, go eat your hay. She'll be back." He'll tilt his head a little like he's trying to figure out whether I'm telling the truth or not, then slip away back to his food. He always whinneys to her when he sees us coming back down the driveway after her workout, but it's not so frantic and exacerbated. More along the lines of, "Hey, I missed you! Glad you're back!"

I'm still stressed to the max. This massage certification is making me insane, but we were thankfully able to extend the requirement deadlines by getting an incomplete in the course until March 1st of next semester, so I have until then to complete the necessary massage hours and video logs. It's such a welcome relief; I think I would have cried myself to sleep every night without this little bit of reprieve.