Seriously, this is the bane of my riding existence right now. I had a few months where basically me and Radar's owner were the only two riders consistently riding him. His owner doesn't really ask him to work that hard, so when I was really the only person consistently asking him to bend and give a bit on the reins he really was able to do a decent job of it. Over the last two or three weeks he has been getting used more in more serious jumping and dressage lessons and, ironically enough, these make him so much stiffer. Ridiculously stiff in fact, and more resistent to going forward. Usually forward isn't that much of an issue with him (with spurs and a whip!) but even that was hard at first last week. I really had to get after him. But we actually ended up having a fine ride on Friday, we really worked through his stiffness (I totally felt it the next day-- my arm ached!) and got some good sitting trot and canter circles by the end.
Mia said he was a lot better and less stiff on Saturday from my ride-- nice, but I wish I could benefit from someone else riding him before I do and getting him all nice and loose! I guess anyone who either rides other people's horses or even purchases their own horse who has prior training deals with this to some degree. It's somewhat frustrating but entirely understandable. I'm riding him earlier tomorrow so it will be before his other rider comes-- hoping that will make a difference for the better!
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