Sassy Sassy Sassy

I had planned to work with Pistol today on going sideways to the block, and teaching lateral flexion from the ground, but... you deal with the horse that shows up.  Pistol was in a SASSY mood, so we played some catching game, and then once he caught me, I haltered him, and we did some really exuberant stick to me.  He really hasn't had to do much with stick to me, because we've been working on so much else.  Just the basic walk/trot/stop/back up.  But not today.  Today, I'm sure he was wondering what happened to his mom, and where'd this herd leader come from again???  I started asking him to circle and change directions, almost the falling leaf pattern but not quite, and then started moving with him.  I started trotting with him, and changing direction and having him change direction with me, which meant switching sides as well.  It was quite interesting, because he picked it up right away travelling with me on his left side and switching to the right, but the other way around seemed to really be difficult for him.  So... we kept going, switching from walk to trot to canter, and then stopping and backing up.  Then I got really tricky on him, by changing direction at the trot, trotting a couple steps, and changing again!  Then doing it again!  He was reeeeeeally thinking at this point, and getting quite sweaty, since it was so hot out, so I slowed down to a walk.  Guess what? Licking and chewing.  Once his breathing slowed down a bit, I stopped, and started to play the friendly game.  He dropped his head, sighed, and cocked a hoof.  Silly boy. :)  Guess every LBE needs an exuberant day now and then. :D