rocking horse

well yesterday zani was most definitely a rocking-horse. with all this saddle humbug i've ridden zani quite lightly for the past week and i've let him be quite free with his neck not asking for allot of collection. so now that we are set with the saddle and i'm sure he isn't hurting i've started to ride him normally again.
yesterday when i started working him i let him canter since he only wanted to canter and not concentrate on trotting with a long neck. i pushed him into a good long canter and sat in a 3 point position and let him go. i felt that he was a bit crooked and i wanted him to straighten out so after a good warm up i started to canter him and collected him a bit. zani decided that he didn't want to straighten out and work through his whole body so i flexed him to the outside to encourage him to move his hind legs underneath him. zani ofcourse being the 'steam engine' that he is decided he didn't want to do it so he started to rock as in he lifted up his hind to buck but then bounced with his front so it felt like i was sitting on a rocking horse. ofcourse this is not the way he should canter so i pushed him with my seat a bit stronger and he came nicely onto the bit and flexed his neck into the right bend.
so we worked through our issues yesterday and today he was super. i took him to the upper arena that doesn't have any fencing for the first time to ride and he didn't spook anything or lose concentration. the arena is basically in a forest so you can just imagine the rustling and fun sounds you can get. i worked zani on large circles making them smaller and bigger in both trot and canter. zani still has the habit sometimes that he leans on the right rein so i didn't let him by using my right leg and flexing him to the outside so he had to take the left rein into contact. othewise he worked very well and i was really pleased with him today.
and yes a rider can have other hobbies so i'm off to a martial art seminar for the weekend. i believe that along side riding every rider should have some other form of exercise since your riding muscles need to be supported by other muscles that aren't worked while riding. for me the nice counterpart to riding is a martial art (bujinkan) that provides further teaching in body control and maintaining flexibility. so with that note i bid you a good weekend and a summery day! :D