Skeeter's 2018 in Review (August - December)

In August, we did a mare swap: Pearl went up the hill for two weeks while Skeeter went to the trainer's to get some buttons put on. Skeets is really good at trail work, but to do posse stuff she has to be able to do "fancy" stuff as well: sidepassing, turning on the fore and hind. She didn't know how to do any of that. The first trainer update was encouraging:

"Well skeeters pretty damn smart. No buttons when I got on her but by the end of the ride we could sidepass without standing at the fence, pivot both ends, stop within one panel length instead of half a round pen lol and we lope both ways on the correct lead. Usually a sidepass is a 3-4 day ordeal without the fence to help. We also learned to stay 2-3' behind me on the lead rope no matter what I do."

Since the posse arena is Skeeter's kryptonite, the trainer (who is also a posse member) hauled her over there a few times for work, and I had the chance to go have a lesson in the round pen at the arena. I also sent Autobot to do a lesson at the trainer's since she was riding Skeeter so much more often than I was.

The mare re-swap timing didn't work out quite as well as the first time, which was fine with me. I got to have my girl home for a day before she went back up the hill.

"Mom, stop embarrassing me!"

She did great at the trainer's, but we were both happy to be back up where our hearts belong. I thought I was getting a rare treat in riding with both my parents, but it turns out it was just the first of many rides I got to take with them both this year.

8/24/18

I wouldn't have believed anyone who told me that I'd get to ride out the rest of the summer with both Mom and Bill, but it was true. I think there was only one ride in September in which I didn't have both parents with me. The month started off beautifully. Both of us were thrilled to be back up on the mountain.

We took a long ride down to Rock Creek, which involves some pretty serious descents and ascents, then we looped around the top of the ridge to overlook the beaver ponds. As usual, Skeeter was a rock star. (I should probably mention that Alloy was also a rock star and accompanied us on most of our rides throughout the summer.)

9/7/18

Autobot stopped by my work a couple of days after our amazing ride tell me that Skeeter had backed off the switchback. Skeets was okay, just sore, and Autobot had managed to dismount before Skeets went over the edge. Luckily, she didn't flip over and hurt herself, she just slid down on her belly, shook herself off when she got to the trail below and took off down toward the highway. A car had seen what happened and stopped to help. Skeeter wasn't really intent on going home, thought that she should introduce herself to the new human on the highway, and was easily caught. Thank God. It was the best possible outcome all around. As a result, though, our next scheduled ride became a walk around Ski Road just to keep her loosened up.

9/15/18

"Mom, I'm sore."

We don't know what caused her to back off the switchback, but there had been a lot of construction recently in that area (a new house is going up on the mountain) and they had practically undercut the switchback to run the utilities. Where there used to be a small rock "wall" delineating the edge of the trail, there was now nothing. It could be that Skeeter backed up to make the tight turn on the switchback and didn't realize the "wall" was gone. But we'll never really know.

I skipped a weekend of riding and ran away with Jay to go look at the amazing fall colors. Autobot continued to do some light riding on Skeets, just to keep her moving as she healed from her mishap. Skeeter, though, had definite ideas about that switchback and would not go up (or down) it unless she was being led. There was no way she was going to carry a rider up and down that switchback - that's something we'll have to work on next summer.

Since Skeeter wouldn't carry a rider up and down the switchback, I had the opportunity to try to get pictures of the "scene of the crime". Unless you've ridden it, it's not going to be very impressive, but falling off that damn thing has always been one of my fears.

The end of September means the beginning of hunting season, so we broke out our blaze orange for Skeeter's last ride of the year up on the mountain. Despite having to be led up and down the switchback, we had a great ride.

October meant Skeeter got to come home for a bit. Copper was so happy to have his sister home that he wouldn't let me near her. Every time I'd try to love on her, he'd get between us. Normally, I am not a fan of that type of behavior, but I knew exactly how he felt.

10/5/18

Sadly for Copper, Skeeter was only home for two days before I sent her back to the trainer's for some fine tuning. She'd had all those fancy buttons put on her, but then went right back to trail work and we didn't do any reinforcement of what she learned at the trainer's. We got a great text from the trainer that made my heart swell (not that I had anything to do with it, Autobot, Mom, and Bill did all of the daily work - I just went up and rode each week).

"I have to give you guys props. Skeeter is one of very few that left and came back and when she came back she was even better than before. Great job I love it when I can say that."

The HallowEquine party, hosted by the local chapter of the U.S. Wild Horse and Burro Association, was the perfect time for Skeeter to come home. But, first, we had a blast playing on the obstacle course at Spirit Dancer Ranch. As a volunteer for USWHBA, I was busy doing things on the ground to keep the event moving along, so we sat out most of the games, but after lunch we went down to the obstacle course to play around. Mom, Bill, and Autumn all came down to play with us.

Alloy came to the party as a horse fly (10/21/18)

We've all heard of No stirrups November? How about No riding November? Because that's exactly what happened for us. Not one bit of riding. We did try on Pearl's new saddle to see if it fit Skeets. I mean, it is Pearl's saddle, but don't sisters steal each other's clothes all the time? Her black saddle isn't comfortable for either of us any more, so we thought we'd borrow Pearl's. It fits well enough if we shim it that we shouldn't have any issues.

11/21/18

In December, we lost Ranger. It's been a blow to everyone, and I can't imagine how hard next spring is going to be when it's time to move the horses home from winter pasture.

On 12/23, I'd ridden for just a few minutes in the backyard and Skeeter really, really wanted to go for a trail ride down the farm road, but we were the only ones home and I don't like to ride off property without telling someone where I'll be. It was an impromptu ride. I'd pulled her to play Christmas picture dress up and decided to throw the saddle on. Then I decided that five minutes or so would be good for both of us.

Playing dress up 12/23/18

L.E. had some free time over the weekend, so we went across the street to our neighbor's arena. After two months of not riding, I was a bit nervous to climb back up (I can't even tell you how much I miss the fearless cowgirl I was fifteen years ago!) even though I know Skeeter takes such good care of me. We didn't ride long on our first trip over. Another rider joined us shortly after we started riding and since I'm not an arena rider and don't know all of the unspoken rules, I didn't want to get in the way.

Skeeter "watching" Pearl 12/29/18

The weather was even better the next day, so L.E. and I went back. The other rider joined us, but I was less worried about getting in her way this time. I still tried to be aware of where we were in relation to the other horses and not cut them off. We had a really good ride and I wish that the weather hadn't been so crappy today so we could have ridden again today.

12/30/18

Last ride of the year.

Whew, Skeeter and I did a lot this year! It didn't seem like it, but looking back, it was a fair bit. Here's hoping 2019 is even better.

Skeeter's 2018 in Review (January - July)

(I just mentioned to Jay that I was really glad that I've been better about updating the Facebook page than my blog, because as I'm going through my pictures for the year I don't always remember the stories behind them. The short blurbs I've posted on the FB page have helped jog my memory.)

February had its share of cold days, of course. But there was one day that was exceptionally cold with hoar frost. The farrier was due that day, and Mom and Bill had nothing better to do, so they drove down to help out with the horses. We froze our butts off and took some cute pictures of the horses before we cancelled the farrier. We'd hoped that the weather would get better throughout the day, but it didn't.

Couldn't resist lining them up.

As the day wore on, the hoar frost grew and grew. While it was cold and miserable, the frost was gorgeous. Though the horses look cold, they were actually nice and warm unlike their humans.

No riding happened in March, but the Allenspark Cousins did come down to visit until it was warm enough for them to go back up to the lodge. It's always wonderful to see both herds together.

3/30/18

In April, Skeeter and I started our 40-hour posse training. It did not go well, as you might recall. I mean, it could have been worse, but it also could have been better. Day 1 of training is here, and Day 2 here. The day after training, we sadly had a funeral for our former posse team leader. When I got home from the funeral, Mom and Bill were waiting and insisted I get up on a horse. Bill had been itching to ride Skeets, so I climbed up on Washoe. So far, this is the only picture of me on a horse in my uniform and it's not even my horse! I'm probably breaking all sorts of rules by posting this, so ssshhhhhh.... (p.s. the hellhat is not part of my uniform.)

More pictures of the Allenspark Cousins, just because they make me happy.

4/22/18

The cousins took over the hay bale and the Wild Ones came to tell on them.

I don't know what happened in May, but zero riding got done. Sometimes I blink and it's a whole new month. I'm pretty sure that's what happened. There is evidence that I talked to and loved on my horse, but did not get up on her.

Come June, we attempted to finish up our 40 hour training. Attempted is the key word. It didn't go much better than it had in April. I'm fairly certain that's because we ended on such a poor note, she now associates the posse arena with bad stuff, not good stuff. Day 1 is here, and Day 2 is here. June didn't entirely suck, though. We moved Skeeter up to the mountain, where she is happiest. Autobot and Skeeter spent a lot of time together throughout the summer, which made it really nice when I went up once a week or so to ride.

6/29/18

We found out during that first ride that Skeeter did not want to cross the "big" water. It's about 4 inches deep and 15 feet across, but it was no bueno. I dismounted and finally got her across. We had no problems crossing it to come home. We are both much happier on the mountain than anywhere else.

July was full of riding, even if it started on a not-great note. Skeeter managed to pick up a stone bruise, but we thought she'd be okay for a short ride in Estes' memory. I was wrong. While she didn't look lame, once we added my weight and started up the hill, it was obvious that she was still hurting.

2nd Annual Estes Memorial Ride was a bust.

By 4th of July, she was feeling good enough to ride in the parade with Autobot, where they did so well. Because of my volunteer duties with the posse, I didn't think I'd make it up to the lodge in time to see the parade, but I'm glad I did.

Good parade ponies

Autobot and I had a great birthday ride. She took out Washoe, and I went out on Skeeter. Skeets did amazing. We got ourselves in a bit of a bind and she managed to think her way out of it. I came back from the ride all grins. Skeeter was pretty proud of herself, too. You should have seen the smug look on her face when we got back to the lodge.

"Yeah, I'm *that* good Mom"

We ended July with our first real bareback ride. When I first started backing Skeets when she was a "baby" mustang, we started bareback, but only took a few steps each time. Bareback is actually my preferred method of riding, but I've been hesitant to do much bareback on such a green horse. As soon as I climbed on, I felt like I was at home. We've had some really good rides, but I've always been a bit tense in a saddle. However, I haven't done much bareback riding since Estes died, so we decided to start slowly, with a lap around the block, but we felt so good that we extended our ride to the Ski Road loop.

I will forever treasure this photo of Skeets and Uncle Ranger.

Copper, the Big Red Dog

Wow, my last post was kind of a downer, wasn't it? Yikes. I guess I should have been better about updating the blog. I've posted snippets on the FB page, but haven't taken the time to sit down and write an actual blog post. Skeeter's doing amazing on the mountain, Pearl is doing amazing in her lessons with L.E., and Copper and I have taken on a new project.

Since Copper's got a hitch in his get-along, we can't ride him much (in fact, I think he's only been ridden twice this year by Mom and Autobot). However, he still needs exercise. As much as he loves being a pasture pet, the lounging around and eating all day isn't good for him, so I knew we needed to start doing something with him, I just didn't know what.

Just over a month ago, I was working at the range and was carrying a case of ammo from the storage room down to the deck and was dying. So very out of shape. I mean, I knew I was out of shape, but being surrounded by a bunch of fit cops will really drive the point home. As I was huffing and puffing, trying not to show that I couldn't breathe, I decided I needed to join a gym, so I started thinking about it. There is an incredible community center that is very reasonably priced about five miles southeast of our place, but I knew I would not drive past our house to go work out. I needed something closer. I had pretty much decided on re-joining the gym that is on my way to work, but hadn't actually stopped in.

Scrolling through Facebook one night, I saw an ad for a virtual race. Normally, I would have scrolled right on by, but the theme of the virtual race piqued my interest and I looked a bit deeper into what a virtual race was and what it entailed. I could pay my registration online and run the race wherever I wanted to. A plan began to form. I could kill two birds with one stone here - Copper and I would both get the exercise we desperately needed and the X-Files-themed race made me happy. Before I could chicken out, I registered both of us for the race.

I dusted off my Ease Into 5k app and we were off!

Who am I kidding? Nothing's that easy.

Copper's well trained in ground work. The kid knows how to lead at all gaits, so I didn't think there would be a problem. I was wrong. While he enjoyed the walking part of the training, the running part was a ... challenge. I completed our first two training runs with a 1000# anchor. You know those crazy people who run with parachutes attached to them to increase their resistance? Yeah, this was kind of like that, only the resistance was in the form of a cranky gelding.

Only, I can be a lot crankier than he can, and by our fourth training run, I was D-O-N-E with his attitude, so we went to work. When he balked, he got to do some circling exercises, and then I started driving him from the shoulder during each of the run portions of the training. It's a lot more work to have to run in circles than just jog alongside Mom, is what he finally decided. I still wasn't able to do much more than a quick shuffle during that training run, but at least I wasn't dragging a boat anchor behind me either.

He tries for a mare face, but the food hanging out his mouth detracts from the look.

After a couple of days to think about it, our fifth training run went much better. I still had to drive him, but circles weren't necessary and for the first time since we started running, I was able to RUN. Leg-stretching, lung-burning run. It felt wonderful - and I *hate* running. The euphoria came from not having to fight him. I swung the end of the rope at his shoulder, clucked and he stepped up into a nice trot. It was heavenly. You know, for running, which I hate.

Once he understood that he was going to have to trot whether he liked it or not, he began to enjoy it and my workouts got a lot harder! Running next to a trotting horse is HARD! Like, really hard.

Copper looks all sorts of fresh; I look (and feel) like I'm dying.

Two to three times a week for the last four weeks, we've been doing training runs. Copper is enjoying them far more than I am now. I still have to "encourage" him with our first run each time out, but then he trots alongside like a well-trained dog. Once or twice he got charge-y and pulled on the lead rope, but making him back quickly fixed that. It's funny, I literally have him dragging his feet behind me during our five minute warm up, and then after our first run interval, he's looking for excuses to trot. Traitor.

A couple of weeks ago, I was physically hitting a wall. Getting up to go running was an incredible chore and it took everything I had to lace up my running shoes. I was considering scratching from the race (and losing the $54.00 in registration fees), but a little bit of retail therapy lit the fire under my butt again.

X-Files race requires alien socks, right?

I'm still not completely thrilled with this whole running thing, and wish I could say after a month that I'm feeling stronger physically, but that would be a lie. However, Copper *loves* it, and psychologically, I feel good. If only my 47 year old body would get on board that would be great.

Technically, tomorrow is race day, as it's the 25th anniversary of the day X-Files was released, but the beauty of virtual races is that you can do you race at pretty much any time. I have work and Posse stuff tomorrow, so I chose to do the run today. My sister Nebalee, and my niece Asset came out to run it with us, which was fun.

Looking all fresh and hopeful before the race

Just dragging my dog along (and check out the alien socks!)

Nebalee, Asset, and Copper look great. I felt like death, but I made it.

Our reported time.

Official race shirt - I earned it.

Nebalee and I found discrepancies between our GPS apps, so we went with her Map My Run app for distance, which thousands of people use for race reporting. I reported the time from my stopwatch app, which is five seconds faster than Nebalee's app and I don't know why. Not that this is a sanctioned race, so it doesn't really matter.

What matters is that Copper and I did it. There were times when I was sure it wasn't going to happen, and we did a ton more walking than running in this 5k, but we did it. We have another virtual race scheduled for October 6th, and I'm looking at one for the end of October before we hang up our running shoes for the winter. Copper may not be able to earn ribbons in riding competitions, but he can earn his 5k metals, and we'll proudly display them next to anything Skeeter and Pearl earn.

Second Training Weekend, Part 2 (6/3/18)

When I got back to the arena the second day, I was relieved to see that she'd eaten most of her hay and drank a good deal of water because I worried about her pacing herself into an ulcer or colic. She was much calmer, too. Not frantic that her neighbors were being pulled from her pen, and happy to see me.

It appeared that she'd managed to find her brain overnight, but I still chose not to ride, knowing that the training plan was more intense than the day before. With her blow up over being saddled the day before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but she was back to being a "broke" horse.

Day one, I kept her with me, separate from the horses because of her anxiety. Day two, though, with her regained brain meant that she could be ponied from another horse. While everyone else was warming up, I took her into the arena with the other horses and did some circle work with her before handing her off to another posse member to work in formation.

She did incredibly well in formation, so got to go with the rest of the team across the bridge (she did awesome - but better than first weekend training) into the venue.

Right in the middle, surrounded by other horses.

For a horse who didn't want to be around other horses the day before, she did really well with horses close to her on either side. She got ponied all around the park, and got to see all sorts of sights: a huge rodeo arena (she worked in that for patrol car desensitizing in the first week of training), buildings on both sides, livestock barns, and vehicles. She had to stop and stand in formation, and work with the other horses. It was a great learning experience for her.

Despite me being an avid shooter, Skeeter *hates* guns. She's okay with the occasional shotgun or rifle blast from the neighboring hunters, but does not at all appreciate handguns. I know, I know, it breaks my heart, too. Gun training was planned after the tour of the vanue and I was cautiously optimistic based on her morning behavior.

I worked her from the ground during gun training, but it did not go well. The Posse member who had ponied her throughout the morning offered to trade horses with me, and since I was tired of fighting with Skeets, I jumped at the offer. I struggle with walking the fine line between being supportive in her fear, and disciplining bad behavior, so it was a relief to have someone else take it on. In watching the other person disciplining her, I realized I needed to reinforce boundaries, stimulus be damned. Because I was so concerned about trying to be comforting and supportive during something that I knew scared Skeeter, I was letting her walk all over me. My fear was that if I disciplined her for her fear, I would make her fear worse. She did much better with the other handler, which isn't surprising, since the other handler wasn't concerned with how Skeeter felt, she was concerned with keeping her ownself safe.

Skeeter hated the gunfire, but eventually quit trying to jump on the human holding her. I'll call it a win (for now). Once gun training was over, she relaxed again and started to show interest in other things, so we went over to watch the obstacle course.

She was very interested and wanted to go play, but because the other members were testing on the course, we didn't get to. There were still a few hours left of training, but I wanted to leave on a good note. The first weekend training, I didn't do that, and I think it negatively impacted her ability to relax for the second weekend training. She was in such an agreeable mood, I figured she'd load up easily.

I've spent a lot of time and money on trailer training, but she's a stubborn mare. While I was trying to load her, the next group of horses began their gun training. So in addition to having a horse that didn't want to get on the trainer, I also had a horse who was stressed by the gunshots.

I may or may not have threatened to walk her the half a mile down the street to the rendering plant - that's when I knew it was time to take a break. After an hour, I tied her to the trailer in order to avoid killing her.

I'm pretty sure we were trading hateful thoughts at this point.

 I sat on the back of the truck and tried to think happy, calm thoughts. I knew that continuing to try to load her with both of us being so frustrated wasn't going anywhere. There are very, very few things that drive me to tears, and this was super close.

Eventually, the rest of the Posse took a break and another member asked if he could try. Without much hope, I agreed. I told him the only thing he could not do was pull on her head - that's what got us in trouble in the first place. He tried every trick he knew - and he has a deep toolbox of tricks - but she wouldn't get in. She'd load her front two legs, scoot up right until her back legs were touching the trailer and stop. (It's the same thing she was doing for me.)

I, too, have tried every trick in the book. We even started out, when she was brand new to us, by feeding her in the trailer. She thanked me by eating all of the wiring and padding on the divider. She also learned that she can eat from the manger without getting all the way in the trailer, and that lesson comes back to bite me in the ass on the regular.

Eventually, we were down to the last tool in his toolbox - a manure fork. We bribed her as far in as we could get her, with me holding the grain outside of the window to force her to stretch as far as she could, then he poked her in the ass with the manure fork until she stepped up into the trailer to get away from it.

I had hoped to leave on a good note, but two plus hours after I wanted to leave, I was just happy to get in the damn truck and go.

To say our 40-hour training was disappointing would be an understatement. I was seriously questioning our ability to work with the mounted unit, and was beginning to think about switching from mounted to the volunteer (ground) unit. Surprise would be an understatement when I received our certificate of completion for the training.

We are nowhere near being ready to patrol, and I'm still not 100% sure that we'll ever make it as a mounted team, but I'm not ready to give up quite yet.

Second Training Weekend, Part 1 (6/2/18)

The Posse's 40-hour training is broken up into two very long weekends. Well, they're typical weekends, but they feel very long. There is a lot of training and desensitizing that has to go on in order to be patrol-ready. I had high hopes of being able to ride in the second weekend training. I knew we wouldn't get certified, but Skeeter had been doing so well, I thought I'd at least get to ride in warm-up and maybe in formation.

I was so, so very wrong in thinking that.

Skeeter loaded into the trailer pretty nicely (for her), but when we got to the training arena, she lost her mind. She stepped off the trailer, looked around, and said "oh, fuck no. I'm not doing this again!".

Suddenly, things that we've been doing for years were impossible for her to do. Her stress and anxiety were off the charts and the only think I can think of is that her last trip to the training arena had been so stressful that she just couldn't function.

I tied her to the trailer and she could do nothing but pace. I groomed her and attempted to saddle her any way. It was like she'd never seen a saddle before. I got the saddle on the first time, but couldn't get it cinched up because she was moving so much. I tried untying her from the trailer, so she wouldn't feel too confined, and she had to move her feet. And, boy, did she move her feet! She hasn't bucked with a saddle since she was first learning to wear one. Lucky for me, my saddle is light, so I was able to hold onto her lead with one hand and pull the saddle with the other.

I moved her feet a lot, doing lots of turns and transitions, in an attempt to get her to focus on me. After a few minutes, she calmed down enough for me to saddle her a second time, but she was not happy about it. Though I was able to saddle her, I decided it was not in my best interest to attempt to ride her, so we settled in to watch the goings-on.

This was her "happy" face for the weekend.

I'd like to say that the weekend got better, but that would be a lie. She had moments of not-so-bad, but mostly she was anxious and upset all weekend. Part of me wanted to pack it in and go home, but I wasn't about to give up. I don't know if that was the right decision, but I made it and stuck to it, so we both got to suffer through the weekend.

We found out that she hates it when trucks fart at her (air brakes releasing). The water truck wasn't scary, but the farting was and she about turned herself inside out every time.

Then the med-evac helicopter came for a visit. Helicopters fly over our place occasionally, but they never seem to bother the horses, so I thought she'd do okay. She didn't mind at all while it was flying over, until it was time for it to land. She did pretty well, actually, just had to move her feet and circle around me once or twice as it was landing, but no big explosions from her. I wanted to hear the presentation from the helicopter team, so I put her in the round pen and let her be.

When the helicopter left, I went to fetch Skeets out of the round pen only to find that she had rolled in it and slipped it off to the side. I took it as a good sign that she relaxed enough to roll, even if it meant she scuffed the hell out of my cheapo saddle.

It had been a big day, and we still had hours to go, so I stripped her of the saddle and put her in her pen, where she could watch what was going on in the arena, but not be forced to join in the festivities. With her safely tucked into her pen, I could join in on the activities on the ground, where I learned a lot about escorting and controlling people from horseback.

We finished the night with fireworks. The posse horses did great, and Skeeter watched from the safety of her pen, though she refused to eat or drink until I went and sat with her for a while. Once I saw her finally calm down enough to eat, I felt comfortable leaving her overnight while I went home.

Back in the Saddle

Ever since Pearl bucked us off two years ago, neither Jay nor I have climbed back up on her. Mom, Bill, L.E., and Autobot have all ridden her, but we just hadn't gotten around to it. However, we bought her so we could use her and the intermittent riding she's been getting just wasn't cutting it. We have three solidly green broke horses who aren't progressing because we just don't have the time for them, so we decided to send Pearl off for some wet saddle blankets.

I'd been looking around for someone, but Jessica was full, as was our second pick, and the person Jessica recommended was far too expensive, so I kinda put it on the back burner and focused on getting Skeeter ready for the second half of Posse training (post on that will be in a few days).

We have lots of trainers who are Posse members, which means we have lots of different ideas on how to train horses. I never seriously considered sending any of my horses to any of the Posse trainers because I wasn't sure, with all of the different training philosophies, that I would choose one that would fit my own training beliefs. However, during Skeeter's last weekend training, one of the Posse members offered to take her from me when she was giving me fits. After watching her handle Skeeter, I decided that our training philosophies aligned enough that I would be comfortable sending a horse to her.

While the Posse member offered to take Skeeter, I preferred that she take Pearl. It was kind of a quick decision, because she's booked in July, but had an opening this month. I talked it over with Jay, we dug into savings, and off Pearl went to Wet Saddle Blankets Camp.

Jay telling his Disney Princess to behave herself and have fun

The first report from the trainer was that Pearl is "broke with all the fancy buttons". We knew that, but she needed to be "dumbed down" for us. She's a bit too well trained for what we need her for, and if someone asks for something wrong, she gets frustrated and threatens to blow up. The trainer's updates throughout the week were all positive, so I was feeling pretty confident (though nervous, let's not be crazy) on our way for my lesson (6/15/18).

She was a bit hot when the trainer stepped up on her, and in the past, I would have been all about riding her out. She wasn't malicious, just needed to move her feet. However, I've never had a horse so completely destroy my confidence like Pearl did when she bucked me off. Skeeter has never once offered a buck, but my lack of confidence because of Pearl has impacted my ability to relax and ride Skeeter. It was very important of me to get my ass back up on Pearl and remember that I do, in fact, know how to ride.

Pearl's 15 hands, easy, and my little 30" legs weren't going to mount from the ground, so when it was my turn, we went over and I mounted from the fence. All I could think of was how many different ways it could go wrong if she didn't like what was going on, but I slipped my leg over and shifted my weight from the fence to her back. She didn't even flinch.

With the trainer coaching me, we rode circles in the round pen and practiced all the "fancy stuff" that I don't know how to do. She was solid, so we moved out of the round pen and into the arena. Once I was comfortable at the walk/trot, she took us back into the round pen for a bit of loping. Now, loping is not anything I'm comfortable with. We ride on the mountain and there just aren't any safe places to do much more than a trot. The trainer assured me that her lope was much smoother than her trot, which was good, because I could not find my seat on her big, Andalusian-style trot.

We worked on walk/trot, then I asked for a canter. It is nice and smooth, but I was only comfortable with a few strides before I brought her back down to a walk. Her transitions are nice and smooth between gaits, and she calmed down pretty okay.

She likes to go and would be an excellent endurance horse. When Copper came up lame, we were pretty certain that Jay's goal of riding and LD (limited distance) had died. Not true, now that we have Pearl. I think she'll thoroughly enjoy the training required for an LD, and we can set our goal for next fall.

Yesterday (6/19/18), I sent Autobot to the trainer's for a lesson on Pearl. Autobot's been doing some of the Pearl riding, though Pearl makes her nervous. Turns out, according to the trainer, Pearl just had her number. Now that Autobot has learned the "correct" (according to Pearl) buttons, and has learned to deal with Pearl's spooks and temper tantrums, she shouldn't have a problem at all riding her. I haven't talked to Autobot yet to see how she feels the lesson went, but I was encouraged by the trainer's report. Jay goes for his lesson on Friday (6/22/18), right before we bring our Disney Princess home.

The plan is to take her for a saddle fitting next week, so we can continue to ride her and not let her regress. I might even consider taking Miss Pearl to some Posse trainings to see how she'll do, but that won't be until August. I joined the Posse because Jay wanted to and talked me into it, but without Copper, he hasn't joined. Now that he's got a horse who might be suitable, maybe I can talk him into joining now.