Blow up on Ride #14~~~Horse with a rider problem

August 24th was my 14th ride on Chainsaw.  Am learning to take a little more care in what I do and not just jump into things.  Guess I have been pushing this horse a little too far and fast for his comfort level.  In the process of riding, I have been trotting and cantering lots more than he must be ready for. My big mistake on this ride was that I had been riding another older horse and had my spurs on and felt they were not a big deal~~~Chainsaw felt differntly about the spurs.   Again on Aug 24th he whirled and reared an we met heads again.  This time he got me in the nose and eventually he did get me on the ground.  I got right back on and we rode some more, but a sore nose did make me pause and think this whole situation over.  Soooo I let him sit a few days and talked to some trainers and other horse people over the next couple weekends about him.  Got lots of ideas from put a tiedown on him and crank it down ( my least favorite choice) to have his teeth looked at and take him to a horse chiro.

Went to a big Mounted Shooting event and saw LOTS of really nice horses on Labor Day weekend.  Got home about 6 on Monday evening, Sept 5th and couldn't stand it anymore.  Saddled ol Chainsaw up and took him for a spin.  We did lots of bending ( advice from a Kansas horse trainer) , stopping, and backing at a walk.  The horse was very relaxed and did well for the 30 min ride.
On Sept 7th I rode him again and knew he would be a little more elevated since I had been mowing in the pasture earlier and Chainsaw and his buddies thought it was a WILD time to run and snort.  The horse was noticeably more spooky and alert for the ride, spooking ( just a little) when one of our cats jumped up on something near the arena.  He did have a mini-fit at a walk even but handled it much better than his others and didn't dive off or rear or any other bad behavior.  As hard as it is I am going to try to go slower with him and see how that goes for more rides before doing anything rash in the equipment area.  He is always going to be a more elevated horse and that is what I wanted when I got him.  Will just have to see if we can get along well enough to compete as a team in the Cowboy Mounted Shooting.