Smokey's First Ride :)

Today was the big day!! After being at camp for a fun (and incredibly hot) week, I was totally ready to be back on a horse. So this afternoon, I took Sunny out for a bareback trail ride, then got Smokey out for some practice with getting used to a saddle. He did so well I decided to take the plunge- or should I say leap- and get on him. He was perfect. :-) I tied him up and put the saddle on him, then led him around with it on at a walk and trot so he could adjust to the feel, then tightened the girth up all the way and repeated the walking and trotting. Then I let him eat, and bounced up and down in the stirrup, then got both feet off the ground and leaned over his back, and then finally swung my leg over and was fully mounted. He didn't twitch a muscle- well, okay, no more muscle twitching than was necessary to dislodge flies- and acted like this was the most natural thing in the world and he'd been doing it all his life. He understood what to do when I squeezed one side of the rope or the other, thanks to all of his groundtraining when Dan and Sue had him, the only thing he didn't know was what leg pressure meant. He just stood there, but he began to understand it before I got off of him because of all the praise he got when he stepped forward. He walked all around the little pen, and he was completely comfortable with it all. I couldn't have been more proud of him!