Spring Training

Between riding Whisper and putting miles on Scooter to have him fit for me to ride in an upcoming Hunter
Pace, the longer daylight hours each evening are getting sucked dry.

Whisper and I've had some great rides, using the whole ring, all 3 gaits, basically enjoying a near normal riding horse. We've had some terrible rides. Spooking, jigging, not even slowing when I use a one rein but spinning out like a reining horse going even faster. Oblivious to me, neck jacked up, nothing works when she gets like this.

Longing, circling, using my seat and weight way back, leg pressure, nada. It's infurating at times. To go from so high with some success to back to square one is defeating and I'm worn out from the constant defeat of riding Whisper.

There's no rhyme or reason. No pattern with heat cycles, feed issues, turn out issues, nothing. I've stayed up nights thinking of anything I'm missing and it comes back to sometimes she's great, sometimes she's dangerous, and the rest of the time she's somewhere in the middle going between the two in the same session.

New training I've tried is the "release rein pressure and use your seat to push your weight as far back as possible, leaning even to encourage your horse to walk. Walking engages the front, trot and jig engage the rear. Putting your weight rear will convince her to engage her front."

Nope. Chris laughed and said that I didn't weigh enough for her to care. All I know is I tried really putting my weight back and NOT taking hold of her face and she bolted from the trot straight into a gallop. When I sat WAY back, she bucked and I almost ate dirt. After that I choked back tears, and got off.

I made her work more on the ground so that she wasn't getting off the hook or anything. But is this what riding is supposed to be? 3 sessions of WOW! Fun! and then  4 weeks of misery?

I can't throw money at this problem so I've got to be selective and I'm getting at my wits end. I adore the horse, duh, but this is supposed to be a fun pastime, not an exercise in cheating death. I've hired Katie to ride Whisper on Monday morning to give her opinion. I'm hoping that Whisper gives her medium to bad and not one of her fabulous days so we can see some roots of the problem.