Sunday, October 18, 2015

Lesson 4: Back in the Saddle Again

On Saturday, I finally got to ride Skeeter. It was just a baby ride: working on flexing, go, and one-rein stops.

Jessica spent some time showing me what they had been working on. As usual, I was extremely impressed with how far Skeeter has come. Jessica said that riding her is like riding an old plow horse - she's not overly sensitive and she's kind of heavy on the bit right now, but she's getting lighter.

When it was my turn, there was no anxiety or butterflies. I watched how solid she was with Jessica and knew we'd be keeping it to a few steps here and there, very much like what we did at home when I first "rode" her.



We rode around for about ten minutes, practicing, before Jessica started filming. Oh boy, am I out of riding shape. My hamstrings and adductors are a bit sore from working her through being "stuck".

She's coming along so well that I'll be bringing her home at about 45 days and we can move onto the "wet saddle blankets" phase of training. We'll do the ole switcheroo and Copper will head to Jessica's. I can't wait to see his progress.

4 comments:

Shirley said...

That first ride is always a neat feeling. Skeeter looks like she is going to be a good horse for you.

Linda said...

Looking good! That's great exercise! How many days until she's at the 45 day mark? Has she been on the trails with Jessica?

GunDiva said...

Shirley, I think she's going to be an excellent horse. I can't wait to get her home.

Linda, 45 days will be November 3rd. We're hoping to do the horse switch on November 5th - since Jay and I already have that day off. They're still doing round pen riding, I expect that they'll transition to the arena this week. I don't know that they'll get out on the trails before Skeeter gets home, but that's okay. As long as Skeeter has a great stop and basic steering, I don't mind doing my own trail work with her. I've had the opportunity to see her spook twice now and she does a lovely "spook in place", so I'm not worried about her running off with me once we're riding at home.

lytha said...

What a great trainer you have. She's quick to acknowledge the positive, every effort of horse and rider. She does that cute non-stop narration of what the horse is thinking or doing, too. Totally jealous.

In a later video she has you do serpentines and perhaps she got that from Buck, it's a mandatory exercise for all his students as they start the riding phase of his clinics. I've begun to rely on these serpentines on every single strange horse I get on (as I'm shopping, I get the fun of riding a lot of horses I don't know). I also used it at the start of every single ride on my crazy mare, because it keeps her mind off whatever might scare her and as your wonderful trainer said, you're halfway to a one-rein stop the entire time you're doing the serpentines.

Thanks for sharing. I know it's hard to post lessons, putting our mistakes in front of the entire world for eternity!