Rosie, I'm sure Bliss is much better off your leg at home than he was at the clinic, where he was distracted and a little worried. Think of the clinician as giving another tool for your tool box. In other words, at home my focus (were I you) would be on checking often that I am not nagging with my leg or clucking continuously to keep the energy I think he works best at. Those are little habits that are super easy to create at home and 10x's harder to break. been there, done that, have the t-shirt to prove it.
Oops, you posted while I was writing--good job Rosie and I'm glad someone one here had an idea that worked for you.
Flight, good job riding so soon after surgery. I have to agree about the walk, which you appear to have pushed a little over tempo. I have had horses in the past that felt pokey in the walk, but when video'd or observed by good ground help turned out to have plenty of forward and i was in fact asking for too much.
I met my first goal! Friend picked me and Tio up yesterday and we went to a jumping arena about an hour away for her to have a lesson and for me to simply see if I could ride the "T". He did amazingly well in my estimation. Loaded and unloaded fine, allowed me to tie him to the trailer and tack him up, and then behaved as I led him down to the arena past all the horse paddocks. He was a little spicey on the lunge so I had to lunge him a bit longer than I normally would, but he has been worse. Finally, I got on him and tried to walk around the arena. That rather quickly devolved into standing in one spot hopping up and down instead! I got off and worked him in hand both sides/directions until I was sure he had forward in mind and then I hopped back on. This time he walked, trotted and even cantered some with only a few little "bucks" here and there and one or two "no I won't move" fits. I had to remind myself to keep my legs quiet and my seat active--he responds better to that than the other way around. (Kicking, hitting when he's anxious just makes him less apt to move and more likely to rear and/or buck.) Despite his antics he stayed light, was a little rushy in the trot, and showed some lovely canter strides. After a little work-out both directions, I just let him stand with me still aboard, while I watched my friend jump her youngster. I was very pleased overall, instructor and friend, however, were not.
They think I need to ride him in a western saddle (so I don't get bucked off) and I need to beat him when he pulls his stopping/head diving/crow hopping events. From the onlooker's perspective, they are probably right, but I plan on just keeping to my plan of rewarding correct behavior while either ignoring or discouraging incorrect behavior. It is my belief that all that fussiness was his way of expressing anxiety, and that the best way to deal with that is to show him he can still listen and perform even if he's worried. In other words, he needs to trust me so much that the environment ceases to be a concern. To that end, I am riding him more and more out of the arena but only if he's earned it through good work in the arena. Friend did say that even when he was acting up, he never did have a sour face or the squinty eyes of a horse that's simply trying to get out of work, rather he looked more confused/distracted. I think he worried them because he is such a powerful, short-coupled horse, that if he wanted to, he could launch me into orbit. Oddly enough, I feel very secure on him and had no idea that what I call little crow-hops were in fact actual bucking episodes. Hopefully, next time we go there, (in 2 weeks) he will show what a good kid he really is and we can play in some grids.
I should probably add that, 2 years ago those refusal to move fits were MUCH worse and borderline dangerous. I even thought about sending him to the place SF sent Pickle because I know they do a great job of getting horses to move freely forward with confidence. Life got in the way of sending him off and now I think we are almost through this phase of his training. Sounds crazy I know, but I can just feel it!
being able to do actual grids and/or jumps would be an awesome bonus. Some day I'll get video of him jumping so y'all can see his real talent.
Best of luck with the move. I hope you will still get lots of time to work with him while he's at Andrea's.
