Day 18/r2

Had a pretty good day with the horses. There was a little excitement but that goes with the territory. First up was DarkStar. I got him saddled and checked out to see about his attitude. All was ok. We  got out to the arena, I backed him from the barn to the arena. Then I lunged him some, going over the log and barrels and then tarped him out. All was going good so I rigged him for driving and we did good at that getting walk, trot canter in both directions with relative softness. He is getting better at that. Then I drove him around the rail in both directions and then started serpentining around the arena. I had about 20 minutes left and all was going so good I decided to ride him. This would be his fourth or fifth ride so I didn't expect any trouble except that we were in the outdoor arena. I put the reins on him and flexed him and then started getting YH and YF just in a circle. He got scared and off we went across the arena, I couldn't tell if he was bucking or not I had his head bent to the side and we almost ran into the nice white pvc fence  but he came up short and I finally got him stopped. I was thankful I was holding on the nightlatch and had a good hold on the rein so he couldn't go flat out straight. Then I just kept him going to the left for a good while til he calmed down some. Then I started flexing to the right and had him YH YF to the right and he again got scared and off we went this time again I thought we were going to take down the fence. He lost his balance but again regained it and we went spookety spook down the rail. The nightlatch and a good hold on the rein kept me on and safe. He stopped and then shut down inside, just waiting to blow up.  So I had to get the feet moving again and we YH and YF again and I let him start to straighten out and kept it up until he was a might calmer. I then flexed him side to side again. Then got off. Let him relax a bit and then got back on and flexed again side to side. Then got off. Whew! I wished I would have taped it.
Debrief- In hindsight I assumed he was ok with me on his back because I had rode him 3-4 times before in the barn and he didn't do that . So I didn't really give him time to process things. I should have got on and off several times then flexed and got off. And just repeated that several times. With him I just went to fast.
Robbie didn't fare much better. I got him in the arena, backed him from barn to arena. Then I put the saddle on him no problem. But when I asked him to move off he bucked so I shut him down. I tightened the cinch and asked him to move off and again he bucked. I then really got after him and had him jumping the barrels, changing directions and for the next 20 minutes he was all out, doing the c-pattern down the arena and back and the back again. I had him lunging and then back to the barrels. I got the tarp out and had that on him making him move. I was trying to dare him to buck again and it was only after he had settled down that I let him get some air. Then I put the bridle on him. He didn't want any part of that either so we worked on that til he was calm with it and willing to open his mouth. Then I put the rein on and we drove around with one rein. He was real soft even offering vertical softness and I got a walk trot canter out of him. We did this both directions 3 times and then we quit.
Tomorrow should be interesting.
Then I came home and decided to spend some time reminding myself what it was like to ride a good horse so I saddled my horses and rode both of them. That was refreshing. I am tired though.