Took grandma out to the barn this afternoon to meet Zoe. She was suitably impressed with how pretty our new pony is and said that she seems kind and gentle.
I hand-grazed for a bit, although Zoe didn't seem too interested in the grass. A night in the pasture must have agreed with her. :) After a bit, E decided to ride bareback in the grassy area around the barns.
E was surprised how easy it was to sit Zoe's trot; she compared it to riding Monte's with a saddle. So either Zoe is incredibly smooth or Monte has a truly awful trot. Probably a bit of both. At any rate, E said it was really fun to ride bareback with her. After a few minutes of warming up, E asked for a canter. Like before, Zoe did not want to go into the requested gait....and she actually bucked this time. Her buck, however, was more surprising than scary. It really was more of a hop, and pretty much straight up and down. E had no trouble staying on, even bareback.
After the buck, E really insisted on getting a canter, which she was able to achieve for a few strides a minute or two later. She then dismounted and after unbridling her, we let her graze for a few minutes before going back to the stall.
So what does this mean? Maybe there is something that hurts when she picks up the canter? Or she is out of shape enough that she just doesn't want to? Or stubborn enough? Maybe she's just testing a new rider to see if she can get off easy? And is this something that is trainable/fixable? Probably. As for possible pain, we'll be going to the vet on Tuesday for a pre-purchase exam so I'll ask about that then.
And if she's still doing this buck thing at the canter towards the end of our trial period but we think she is otherwise great, I'll call the chiropractor out and see if there's something physical that might be contributing to the misbehavior. I really want this to work out.
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