What a kicker

I wanted to ride her on the trail, but Sparkler was a bit spooky, so I opted for the arena instead. After saddling her, she seemed pretty calm and was perfect for mounting. She started out beautifully, but when we got to the end of the arena, she started the kicking routine with her left rear leg. So I stopped moving and thought about what to do. Back up? OK, she liked that. But asking her to move forward again produced a kick with her front right leg. I flexed her head to my foot. At first she did circles, but soon stopped and just gave me her head. I got more kicking when asking her to go forward. So I tried a circle before moving forward a few steps. But then she'd stop. I clucked, squeezed, kicked. Nothing. My kicking produced a bigger kick from her. The chicken in me had visions of getting bucked off, but I wasn't going to let her win.

A quick circle via pressure on the front quarters and we were moving. After that, as soon as she would stop moving, I turned her head, put pressure on the front shoulder with my foot, squeezed as we came out of the circle, and moved forward. Pretty soon, there was no more kicking.