Silver Lining

It's been hard trying to go on about everything after my disastrous weekend with Dolly.  On Monday in my stable management class the lecture was about horse slaughter, then today we had to talk about what we would do if a boarders horse died on our property (of our imaginary boarding stable we are all going to own after graduation).  That really sucked to have to listen to (so I tuned it out by reading Dressage Today behind my laptop).

So after the crappy lecture I decided to go out and see Buck who is still at New Spring at this point.  I thought I'd take advantage of the fact he's in a barn with an attached indoor arena and go ride.  He was brilliant as alway but we are having a couple of different problems I can't seem to get past.  First, I just can't seem to get him around my leg.  On a circle he feels like he's tilted into the circle, kind of like he's dropping his shoulder in, but his nose is pointed towards the outside of the circle.  No amount of pushing him off my leg or opening reins seems to make a difference and I'm kind of confused.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Secondly, he is LAZY!  I am constantly having to push him forward the entire time I ride him.  If I do not ride him with a whip or spurs it's almost impossible to keep him forward.  If he could get the head set right, I think he would be a fabulous western pleasure horse haha!  Not to offend any western pleasure riders out there, I definitely do not think those horses are lazy I just think his normal gaits are slow enough to be good at that.  He's got a gorgeous natural canter and a good active walk when I keep him motivated but by the time I get done riding him my legs feel like jelly.

Finally, the silver lining behind Dolly's tragedy.  I am probably not going to be buying another western riding horse any time soon since that's not really what I'm interested in doing anyway.  So I think I'm going to sell all of her tack and stuff.  With the money I get from the saddle, bridles, and other western stuff I have I am going to put in a saving account with Buck's name on it so I will have money for different horsey things I might need (such as a cross country safety vest or the broken reins that I finally replaced last week).  I never seem to have the money when I need something, this way that's no longer a problem.  Has anyone else ever done anything like that before?  Is that a little horse crazy?