Forgetting How Green Green Is

Yesterday, I took my green OTTB to Denny's to get my first hop-n-plop lesson with him.  I had previously hopped him over a xrail, both in hand and under saddle, and he had visited Denny's, in hand, once before.  Recently, I've been toying with the idea of cantering as I has assumed walk/trot was going well enough, so I focused more work on longeing with side reins to get the canter.  Yes, this horse is quite green.  He was purchased from a trainer at Suffolk as a two-year old and I turned him out for a year or so because his sheer size (16.2h at purchase) and awkward movement on anything but a straight line suggested waiting out the overgrown puppy stage was beneficial to all involved.  And it did, he grew into his legs as a four year old.  But, still...

Green.

He has hacked out some and had negotiated the fake ditch as well as the real water at Huntington, so he is at least willing to give various things a go.  So off to Denny's we went.

Longed, mounted, and started walking around.  Everything was going fairly well for a first excursion until the horse we were riding with started cantering.  Enter ants-in-pants horse.  Also, I did not quite realize how powerful, short backed 17h of horse could feel when balled up.  Back to longeing.  Denny, being put-in-the-time-with-young-horses guy he is, sent the other horse around our longe circle, keeping him far enough away to be safe and had him keep coming close enough to be part of desensitizing Salt.

This is when I realized I was spoiled by the first OTTB I pulled from the track myself, Suki.  She never cared about horses running behind her or around her.  We were over taken on our first XC course and while I saw my life flash before my eyes, she saw no reason to hurry.  I was spoiled.

Green is green.

So, I got back on after Denny returned from taking the other horse on a XC school (reasons I love riding with him: I can trust he won't push for my youngsters to go into an unsafe situation).  Salt was pretty good, reasonable about the next horse to join us.  On the other hand, I do not need to treat my youngsters like they are made of glass.  This is usually around where I start riding badly.  Much like throwing myself up my horse's neck is not an effective driving aid, curling up into semi-fetal position on my horse does not make them more comfortable.  Riding like they know a little more than they do seems to encourage much more confidence... Just do it.

Even still, I forgot how green green is.  He was wiggly.  He is not steady.  At one point turning right because very difficult.  Then, not leaving the ring became difficult.  Funny thing, he definitely chose the "gate area" which is further from the trailer as the gate and acted as though leaving the ring closer to the trailer was not an option since we had not traversed there.  It was like an invisible fence (Denny's ring is not enclosed).  

Our homework:  find a steady eddy to hack a lot with to avoid Salt getting a bit nappy about the ring.

Which means finding a good rider to hack my other horse with me (or taking Denny up on his generous offer to let me tag along on trail rides at Tamarack).

Why?

Because green may be very green... But Suki is finally moving into more of a chartreuse hue.

What color is a well broke horse anyway?  What gradient are we on?