Solutions

I had a long talk with my trainer, Jan, last night about Nikki's latest problems.  We went through a couple of potential solutions.  I was very happy about the fact that I'd thought of all these on my own but just wasn't sure which one to employ:

Stud chain:  Its a light chain that goes around the horse's nose.  Potential problem is that we don't know if Nikki has ever had one on or not.  If not, there's the very real possibility that the first time Nikki feels it around his nose, he'll go flying backwards.  Jan raised the concern that, if he backed up all the way to the arena fence and decided to keep going, he'd easily go right through the fence and may wind up tangled in the vineyard.  Other possibility is that he would rear and flip himself over backwards.  We decided against the stud chain.

Side reins:  These go from the bit rings on the bridle to the saddle girth and can be adjusted tightly or loosely.  These will certainly help Nikki's flexion and we may use them later but, they won't do anything to stop him from turning his big butt and kicking at me.

Free lunging:  Basically, that's me chasing Nikki around the arena, trying to keep him going in a circle to the left, which is the way he doesn't like to go.  We decided to employ this method for now in the hopes that he'll get used to going left without endangering me or him.  I need to go buy a longer lunge whip today so I can stay a bit further back from him to lessen the possibility of getting run over.  And, I think I'll carry my jumps back into the arena so I can hopefully keep him in about 3/4ths of it.  That will allow me to keep him going better.

I just want to ride!!!