Ride #3

I guess I'm making this blog my riding journal also. It's been helpful just with the few times I've written about my rides to go back and read those posts again. It reminds me of different things that I've dealt with and how other rides have gone. It's amazing how fast you can forget about something after it's fixed. Plus it's always nice to look back and see how far you've come.

So on that note, I got ride number three on Mister the other night. I decided to ride at home in the round pen for a change of scenery, because the weather was good and because I didn't want riding to take up the entire evening, like it does when we haul out to the indoor arena to ride.

I knew he was going to be feeling good so I saddled him up and lunged him for a while before I got on. While I was doing that the boyfriend decided that him and his buddy that is staying with us this week were going to get on the girls and ride around a bit also. Of course every time they rode by and then left again Mister would throw a fit. All of our horses are pretty herd bound, which is incredibly annoying sometimes. So I lunged and lunged and lunged Mister, mostly because I was a little afraid to get on him in case he decided to throw a fit while I was mounted.

I did get on him eventually and the guys stayed mostly within eye sight of us so he didn't go completely nuts. They were having fun riding around the outside of the round pen while I worked inside. Considering everything that was going on I was very pleased with my ride. I was able to keep Mister's attention and I could tell that we're making some major progress in the head tossing and giving to the bit thing. That made me really happy! He is still tossing his head and trying to yank me out of the saddle, but he would really give in between the tossing and yanking. Very exciting! I love it when I can feel progress like that!

We did lots of walk-trot, reverses, circles, working on steering, some stopping and backing. He was doing pretty good. I debated just stopping there but forced myself to suck it up and just lope him. It wasn't as much of a battle to get him into the lope as it was the last ride, which is also exciting. He did have some trouble keeping the gait and kept breaking, but it wasn't too bad. At one point I was really riding, trying to push him with my seat and keep some leg on him to keep him in gait and I guess he decided he wasn't a fan of that because he bucked. It wasn't a horrible buck and I just disciplined and got back to loping. After that I decided I would get one more full lap in a nice controlled lope, no bucking, no breaking and that would be it for the day. It took a few tries, but eventually we got it, he stopped nicely when I asked and I got off and loosened his cinch. Yay for another good ride on the butt head and making progress! I was pleased.

It was also interesting watching an inexperienced rider on Midori. My little pony is just so cute! I was so wishing I had my camera with me. She is a great babysitter, but still plenty spicy for me. I just love her. I could see just how responsive she really is, even though newbie rider had no idea that he was even asking for things. I also got to witness her little skitter-jump-buck thing she does from the ground. I always wondered what it actually looked like, I've only ever ridden it. She did it when Sugar went back to the barn, out of sight, and whinnied just as the newbie rider asked Midori to trot a bit. Love the damn herd bound horses. It was like a slow motion wreck that I totally saw coming, but was helpless to stop. Newbie rider did really good though. He stuck the skitter-jump-buck thing and pulled the emergency brake I had told him about earlier and all was well. He survived and even continued riding for a little bit after that, though I did suggest riding inside the round pen since I was done.

All in all it was a fun, productive and encouraging night with the ponies.