Two Posts in a Day

It's been an awesome, awesome day.  After putting *Ben away it occured to me that if I am planning to use my English saddle on him, I had better get re-acquainted with it.  I've not sat in it for 3 years so I thought it best to get comfortable with it before getting on *Ben.  I prefer my Western saddles but neither of my saddles fit him well.

So for this project *Thunder was plucked from the field.  He lives with my other geldings *Sam and *Moon, and normally it is either one of them (or both) who go.  They met me at the gate with their usual self-advocating charm but I walked past them to collect *Thunder.  Now *Thunder's work ethic leaves much to be desired if he's left to his own devices for too long.  Mr. Trained-to-the-Hilt, been there/done that had no intentions of burning a calorie or cooperating today. I've owned this horse since 2002 and there is only one solid rule where he is concerned - if he's having a bad day, everyone is going to have a bad day.  I used to take a "cheer him up" approach but after that failed it became a matter of acknowledging his mood and then demonstrating that things could *and* would get much, much worse if he didn't tow the line.

It felt odd in that saddle.  Nice that there's way more padding under my seat bone that in my Westerns but it definitely felt weird to not be cradled like I am in the Western.  I'll keep at it and I am sure it will get back to being far more familiar to me than my Western saddles once were.  I rode for about 40 minutes - did lots of serpentines, figure 8's, worked on leg yielding and backing.  The ground was too greasy to trot - not to mention we are right at the perfect temperature where the horses are standing around and sweating!  Good enough for the first ride in unfamiliar tack.

After our ride I decided to tie him to the trailer as by then Tanya was saddling up *Moon in the cross ties in the barn.  Awesome idea as it gave *Thunder the chance to practice the art of untying the knot to free himself.  Another mental note: need to get all of the horses used to standing quietly while tied to the trailer.  It's been so long since I've hauled out for an event that I've forgotten how important some of these basic very tasks are.

Lynn
Homefire Curly Horses
Stirling, Ontario, Canada