So today was a good lesson!

By good, I mean I was put on what I like to call the demon horse from hell, aka Dante(that's his actual barn name, I find it very fitting). And he was good with me!

Usually, he is terrible with me. He usually tries to bite me, I mean he bares his teeth like a dog and stretches out his neck, and if possible he will take a snap. He also like to charge people in the field. (Most of this at me was brought on by me, brought on by me I mean I wasn't assertive with him when I first started and became afraid of him. He needs to be told at the first "no", even if it means him getting small wackes. I'm not afraid of him anymore, but he is still bad around me)

On with my story, me and one of the other girls I ride with went to the paddock to get him. She held out her hand he walked slowly up, he pinned his ears but didn't charge(She is also not the most assertive). When he came up to her I clipped the lead line on and he got some love then for being a good boy. After that, I groomed him completely on crosses ties, he nipped at me a few times but a few small taps fixed that, and he stood like a pro, and even enjoyed some of it! He was pretty good when being saddled, so I allowed the little boy who's sister rode before me to feed him an apple. He took each half like a pro, and even let the boy pet him with no signs of aggression! (Not that it surprises me much, because he loves boys. I did my level 1 testing with a boy who Dante adored! Us girls on the other hand, pfft.)

So we tack up no problems, walk up to the indoor, no real problem besides for him hesitating by the puddle that ended up forming. So in the indoor, he let me mount, and fix my stirrups with no problem. He started off his walk slow, but he listened to my cues and went into a nice long strided walk.The walk went well, he listened to all my cues and didn't show signs of acting up. So then we went into the trot (duh duh dun). He made the transition, except he put on his little "pony trot" which was slower then his walk (sigh). So I spent the rest of the warm up time getting him to extend his legs and engage his hindquarters. It turned out okay. We had a good rhythm going, but I couldn't get him to reach my goal of tracking up in the time frame allotted.

So after our free warm up session, my instructor(my usual one) told us today was a dressage pattern day where, we would do the patterns at a walk and trot. So in my head I was thinking "fun". Actually it turned out better then I expected. My usually "pony trot" horse, actually rushed his trot (GASP). The only problem with this was I had to have a shorter rein and use more leg because he liked to try to do his own run...but anyway, it was good. Besides for my dreaded center line(I can never seem to keep a straight line), and my circles. I always ended up starting them early...rider errors! Gotta love them, we all have them. I was proud of my hose though, I didn't have to use my crop and for the most part he listened and stayed in a nice forward horsie trot!

So I did cool-out with no stirrups, it was nice a relaxing. Then I brought him down to the barn where he behaved, never tried to nip, and all that fun stuff. So he got a treat! Which I hand fed him, and he took nicely!! That's like a regular horse whinning at me! Did I mention he didn't pin his ears, not once! Over all a good day!

Now a question to you guys:
When we were stopped for the other to girls did the pattern, I sung a folk song to him as he started to get restless. He stopped and listened to my (quiet) singing. He actually got quite annoyed when I stopped singing, he swooshed his tail at me and hit me in the leg with it!

Now on to the question, do you guys have any tales to tell about horses reacting to music?