The strops

I have always wanted to know exactly what she's doing when she strops. Although I'm aware that she's stropping it somehow feels quite comfortable and not really unseating at all. I got a birds eye view when I watched my trainer ride her. Thankfully she doesn't do this any more ... well very infrequently. She has several 'methods':

Cantering on the spot - she does as it says on the tin! She literally canters on the spot

Makes herself tall - it's really bizarre, she kind of grows, hollows and 'tap dances' with her feet, her feet barely leave the ground, she just shuffles them around like she's tap dancing

Rocking horse - she rocks backwards and forwards from her front to back feet, it's quite bizarre to watch

The head toss - probably the most uncomfortable, she sets her neck vertically and throws her head around

The levade - this one is weird. I think of a rear as them levering themselves up with their back legs fairly straight. Saffy doesn't actually 'rear' anymore but she did ... well, I have to explain it really .... when my trainer was riding her she brought her back legs right under her, if I hadn't have know her I would have said that she was going into a canter pirouette. It was very strange and did look like the SRS levade rather than a rear, she was superbly balanced, her hocks were under her and well flexed and wasn't upright like you'd expect a rear to be.

As my trainer said, let's just hope that she can remember that for when we ARE doing canter pirouette! It does go to show that she CAN take the weight on her back end .....

The Spanish Paw - this is one that she uses on the ground to express her disapproval or impatience. Like the Spanish Walk but she doesn't walk! She's careful never to catch me when she does it and if I'm not looking at her she'll stamp her front leg down so that I can HEAR her disapproval. She did it the other day, I turned around, glared at her and she backed up, dropped her head and kind of went "oh c**p" I don't mind her expressing an opinion but she does get reamed out for this method as it could be dangerous.