Step 4: Tough Love?

Well, my vet didn't find anything major on Friday that she immediately thought could explain Kwik's crow hopping. His poll was stuck and his left SI was out, but she said that's all pretty typical stuff. I'm to give him three weeks, and if he doesn't improve, she wants to x-ray his feet to see if there is anything going on there.

I gave him the day off and lunged him on Sunday. This did not go well. As I was warming him up at the walk, he suddenly dropped down and attempted to roll. I couldn't believe my eyes, but I got him up immediately before he could roll over onto my saddle and put his ass straight to work. I can x-ray every part of his body, but it will be a waste of money if this is an attitude thing. He clearly isn't taking me seriously, and at this point, I think he's just being a snot. We did lots of transitions, and once he was good and warmed up, I asked him to canter. He jumped around like an idiot, putting on an impressive show for the dressage instructor giving a lesson in the grass arena. Thanks buddy. It was pretty hot, so once I got him to canter around politely for a few laps, I got on and we went for a cool down trail ride where he proceeded to be an angel.

I think it's time to cowgirl up and see if we can't work through this. The problem is that I've come off a handful of times trying to work through this and 1) it's scary  2) it hurts to fall like that and 3) I don't really know how. We need to be working consistently with a trainer- I need help figuring out if this is a pain thing or an attitude thing. There is a trainer that teaches at my farm ever Wednesday, and I sent her an email explaining our little situation. She was super nice and agreed to meet us for a private lesson tomorrow. We're going to start him off on the lunge line and go from there. Am I making the right call here?