Both L and E had a lesson with coach A on Friday. For L, this was her first. She was quite excited and even skipped out on basketball practice to get to the barn early.
This was the first time we had even visited the barn in many days - and the horse runs showed lots of evidence of our lack of cleaning! Four people and 30 minutes was not enough to get the stalls even half-way mucked. E and I returned on Saturday and mucked for another hour.
But back to Friday....although the roads are finally ice-free, A's barnyard and driveway are not. So when we loaded up, E. opened the gate for us and I crossed my fingers as we moved across to the road. I didn't even stop to pick up E at the gate - she had to run out to the road to meet us. But we made it.
The horses have had no activity for 2 weeks. I must admit that I was being a bit reckless in letting the girls ride without lunging the animals first and unfortunately, the girls experienced the consequences of that. BOTH horses decided that the fluffy dirt in the fairground arena was just irresistible and rolled - while they had riders on their backs! L. did fantastic (remember, this is her first lesson!) and just jumped off Q's back as he got to the ground. She was a little rattled - who wouldn't be? - but she got back on. A true cowgirl, I'd say!
E. was really struggling to control Curly. He was trying to buck her and then tried to roll. She, too, did great and was able to jump off as he reached the ground. E was more than a little rattled by the rough ride, so A. had her lunge Curly in the arena. After 10 minutes of going in circles, he was happy and ready to give E a great ride. But she was still too nervous to attempt it, so she finished her lesson there and put him back in the trailer. Too bad she wouldn't get in the saddle again - I think he would have given her a wonderful ride. He was the picture of happy submission, with his head down and his ears following her attentively. Curly was beautiful to look at.
The horses will be worked on the lunge line prior to any future riding. Spring fever has set in and they are all a little squirrelly.
On another note - I had a dream the other night that we had to sell Curly. We decided that he wasn't the horse for us - too dangerous or something. I told A. about this dream and she immediately reminded me of how far he's come - and how much E. has improved as well. Last summer she would never have been able to keep her seat during the lesson they'd just had (does that give you any indication of how terrible he was behaving?!!). It was nice to hear that he's going to be okay and that we haven't made a bad choice in buying him. 'Cause I must admit that although I love the guy, I was beginning to have little nagging doubts about his suitability. Wouldn't you if you had just watched your horse try to roll with your baby on his back?
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