Riding, avoiding the bit, and other fun stuff last night

I have been riding Diamond consistently now, about 15-20 minutes at a time, and only at the walk in our soft arena. On our last ride, she had decided that she was going to pull against my rein aids, so I had planned to ground drive her before riding this time. She has always done great being driven from the ground, and did just as great the first few rides, but has decided to start testing the waters. Normal kid stuff (I have a teenager at home, I know all about testing the waters LOL)
I ask Hubby to tack her up, and let him know that I’m going to ground drive her before riding tonight. He comes out of the barn with the headstall and riding reins, and declares “I’m just going to ride her”. Ok, this didn’t sit well with me for a couple of reasons. First, I want to correct any mis-behavior before it becomes a habit, and second, he knows NOTHING about horses other than you get on, kick them, and go.... (Yes, it drives me NUTS and he has no desire to learn anything else)
Knowing that one ride, that he desperately wanted, would not derail her training; I gave in and let him ride. Instead of riding in the arena, he wanted to ride in the fresh green grass... what does Diamond want to do? Eat it of course!! So now, they are in a battle for her head. She wants it down eating the grass, and he wants it up pointing off into the sunset. After watching him struggle for a minute with her, I went over and brought her to the gravel parking lot where the grass would not be a distraction. Hubby seemed to be happy with the intervention, but then became frustrated because she wouldn’t move. Well that’s because she doesn’t understand that kicking her sides means to move, she thinks she’s in trouble. This is a problem because hubby doesn’t want to learn to be a better rider. He doesn’t want to learn the cues I have taught her to move. First we cluck once, that says “please move”, then I squeeze with my calves, that means “Move forward” and finally, if it’s needed, I squeeze with all my leg, sorta digging my heels into her sides, and that means “MOVE NOW DAMMIT!” So, hubby is kick kick kicking her and gets frustrated and says “I need a pair of spurs!” OH NO YOU DON’T! There is NO reason to spur Diamond when she is simply not responding because it’s unclear as to what’s being asked of her. I again, go up to them, take the left rein in my hand, and lead her forward. She walks to the end of the parking lot and freezes. She does not want to walk on to the gravel road (from the gravel parking lot). Now mind you, she’s been out of the parking lot plenty of times, we’ve hand walked her many times up and down the road. After some encouraging from me, and some major praise at every step, she finally got all four feet in the road. We kept walking about another 15-20 feet with stops about every four steps. We turned around, and she walked non-stop to the barn. She knew where home was!! LOL
After that frustrating experience, Hubby gets down and grabs the driving reins and says “She needs to steer and stop better” (Boy, isn’t that what I said to begin with?? LOL)
I change to the full cheek snaffle, and we go into the arena where Trainer X is free lunging Acacia in a perfect circle with no lead or line on her. Acacia was so focused on the task at hand; we did not disturb her one bit! (Good Girl Acacia!!).
I put the ground driving reins on and ground drove her all over the front half of the arena, stopping, backing, right, left, serpentines, figure eights, everything I could think of to keep her paying attention to me and not the commotion in the other half of the arena... and she responded perfectly. I made sure my aids were consistent, and weren’t any stronger than when I’m in the saddle (we tend to get a little braver and stronger on the ground than when we’re in the saddle at the mercy of this 1,000lb animal LOL)
After I was satisfied that she was responding properly, Hubby got back on and I observed from a distance... it’s amazing the things you can see when you’re not involved in the situation.
Diamond responded much better to the right and left rein aids, she did not stop when asked, but took about 5 more steps each time, while pushing against the bit, or throwing her head up to avoid it altogether.

To keep that avoidance from happening, I am going to start riding her in a running martingale,

which will encourage her to keep her head down, and also build some of those much needed back muscles.
As a side note, she now lunges on the line both directions!! WOOHOO!!!