Pain in the neck.

Literally. I can't turn my head to the left without feeling a strong pinch in the back of my neck on the lower left side. It hurts even more to the right :S

This about summarizes how I feel about working with my horses right now. Nothing is going right. Yesterday was sunny, but very windy, so I had to take a rain check on my lesson, which sucks because I'm going to be out of town next week so it'll be two more weeks until I can have a lesson. Urgh. When I pulled up, they looked cute as usual - which didn't give me any clue as to how frustrating the next hour or so was going to be.

Today was sunny and not quite as windy, and I decided I wasn't going to really work on anything and rather just enjoy my horse. I went out later in the afternoon and caught Snickers. I needed to check to see how much he was bridging, which Karen suggested to do by shining a flashlight up under the fenders. There wasn't a lot of light, so I think we're ok, but Snickers was dancing everywhere and it was really hard to see much sometimes. It got really discouraging, especially since I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing and looking for. By the time we were done, I was so frustrated with the saddle and him that it was just better to put him away.

Then I went and got Flash, who seemed happy to come, but then it was just downhill. I picked his feet, which was more or less ok but he still tried to pull his foot away a few times. I couldn't get him to hold still during saddling, so I had to move him to a different spot where he couldn't move as much.

Once he was saddled, I took him into the round pen and got on. All I wanted was an easy walk for a little bit. We didn't even make it around one time when he threw this at me:

I tried to ride him around the round pen afterward: 

But he was still acting like a punk so I got off and lunged him with the saddle, which immediately started as this: 

And then turned into this:

Which led to this: 

And I was getting really worried about my brand new saddle, but luckily I got him stopped after a bit and got it off.

 After that I just lunged him, and he was acting really sensitive. It was ok :S I couldn't get him to cool down very well, and of course he was all sweaty as usual. Finally, I brushed him down, and he seemed OK-ish but still somewhat wet. I really hope he's ok tonight :S There really wasn't a whole lot else I could do.

So then I put him away and gave them their beet pulp, then went home. Somewhere in all this, I realized my neck hurt, probably from whiplash. Lame. Oh well, the good news is my butt stuck in that saddle like glue - so I know I won't be going anywhere! I really hope someone can get out there soon and help me with the fit, so at least I don't have to worry about that anymore. I really hope something turns soon because this is really just miserable!