No Perfect Horse...

While at Otter, I had to remind myself that no horse is perfect, and I actually do need to ride when I'm riding. I got a big reminder of this today as well, when I tried to take Bold out with a couple other horses for the first time this year...
I don't know if it's because he's in better shape now, or if it's because he's been stuck in the arena all winter, but Bold has been quite full of himself when he's around other horses. Even in the arena, if someone passes me too closely, Bold thinks that means we should chase them. Umm no. He's been good lately though, and usually doesn't break from the gait I had him in.
So today, we decided to go outside with a couple of other riders/horses, including Jessi and Kelso. We walked around the small field once, and that was fine. Bold was a little fresh, and wanted to trot ahead, but as long as I kept a loose rein, he stayed fairly relaxed in the trot.
Then we decided to trot. Bold loved the idea. He did O.K. for the first 3/4 lap, then he thought we were racing Kelso. Umm what gave you that idea Bold? So he tried to canter, and Kelso thought it was also a good idea- I brought Bold back into the trot and Jessi got Kelso into a trot-speed canter.... Close enough. Kelso was pretty good overall, but definitely had some spring freshness. Bold was just certain everything was a race... he got more "amp-y" when I tried to hold him back, and was more relaxed but still broke to the canter on a looser rein. We haven't found a happy medium quite yet...
BUT, while I was definitely tense, I could bring Bold into a small circle and have him slow down. He wasn't happy, but he did it. Which made me feel like I can deal with whatever he was going to do. After making him walk for a minute while the other horses trotted a bit, we headed back to the barn. Bold thought we should trot back. Sideways. Umm, probably not my first plan.
We made it back to the barn without anything crazy happening, and I rode Bold for a few minutes in the indoor. It was so warm that I couldn't do much because he got SO sweaty. Oh well.
While we were outside, I was working on not pushing so much against the stirrup with my lower leg. Lena pointed this out to me, and told me that it was a way of bracing against the horse, which obviously isn't going to help with being less tense!

Maybe I should spend more time riding and less time decorating my horsey...