More firsts

Monte attended his first 4-H ride night yesterday. I was a little concerned that the mares (who are all in heat at the moment) might bring out some bad behavior in our recently-gelded guy (5 months ago), but he proved himself to be a gentleman and mostly ignored the girls and their excited "flirting."

He was quite nervous, however, and E had to work while riding. We assume that this is his first experience in an arena full of girls and horses, all careening around at different paces. It will take time for him to get used to the other riders and also to trust E and know that she won't purposefully put him in any dangerous situations.

During the last half hour of the ride, E dismounted and lead Monte around different parts of the arena, allowing all the commotion to swirl around her and her horse, in an attempt to help desensitize him.

I am still a bit stiff from Saturday's tumble and certain movements cause lovely facial grimaces, but overall I am feeling better. We are supposed to participate in an orienteering ride on Saturday. Today, the thought of sitting in a saddle for any length of time is not all that appealing. Hopefully that will change!

Ibuprofen is my friend

Took my first ride on Monte today. Also had my first fall.

E discovered a few days ago that Monte is not a fan of water. I learned today that this also extends to muddy spots. He placed one foot into the mud, and shied to the right while I flew to the left. I am happy to say that I have enough padding on my backside that, although I hurt, I am doing fine. Just pretty stiff and sore now. After I first fell I had trouble standing up - kept blacking out - but within a few minutes I climbed back up into the saddle and had him walk around the arena partway. I quickly discovered that I wasn't able to lift my right leg over the cantle, so I had to perform a rather inelegant dismount from the off-side.

E, who is also afraid of mud (that's how Curly slipped when she broke her ankle), led a very nervous Monte through the mud. Friend T also helped him get over this fear by riding him through it.

While I was on Monte, it was the strangest sensation to feel his entire body bend under me. He is nothing like the stiff barge named Curly! I also learned that I haven't got a clue on how to make him go or turn. Everything is so different on him.

It is abundantly clear that I do not know how to ride a horse. Yet.

Fear

I discovered this past week that I am very nervous when I get up in the saddle on Curly's back. I rode him twice, and both times was too afraid to do more than a walk. It is obvious that I just don't trust him - I've seen him be naughty with E a few too many times. With every twitch and head-shake, I imagine myself being bucked off and lying in the dirt. Each time that I found myself getting too tense, I stopped him and just sat and breathed deeply. Seemed to help a bit.

I did learn to "steer" him more precisely. We wove in and out of poles and around cones; he managed to figure out where I was asking him to go pretty accurately.

My goal for the next ride is to take him up to a trot.

Yesterday's ride

Cleaned and rode out at our home barn yesterday. I rode Curly for a bit (I was nervous.) and E tried out English tack on Monte for the first time.

As she described the afternoon's activities to her dad E said, "It was the best ride ever!"

Need I say more?

Horse eating grocery sacks...

Found out yesterday that Monte is not so fond of plastic grocery sacks. E pulled him out to the round pen for a little conditioning when she discovered this fear of his. So now our lucky guy will get to go through some desensitizing exercises with a grocery sack until he gets over it. :)

Curly is getting much better at having his hooves cleaned. He still puts too much weight on the back ones, making it difficult for me to hold them up, but he willingly lifts his feet now. I also practiced leading him a bit and found that he is trying to be a bit more attuned to his handler (me). We wouldn't win any blue ribbons in the show ring, but at least he stopped and started at approximately the same time as I did.

Lessons on Monte

We trailered Monte out to Black Walnut Farm Thursday afternoon for his first riding lesson with E. We discovered that he is not the calmest animal to haul; he stomped his feet, rocking the trailer, for much of the ride over.

We were running a little late, so E had to groom him at the riding arena rather than at our home facility. She quickly learned that the expectations are higher in the realm of English riding instruction. With previous lessons, the cleanliness level of your horse was really a personal choice, and she has always limited her grooming to picking hooves and getting the dirt off the parts of the horse that come in contact with any tack. Anna told her that in the English world, some instructors expect the horse to be show clean. It is considered a sign of respect to both horse and instructor. Thankfully, Anna does not expect quite this level of cleanliness, but she did ask that E be sure all signs of visible dirt be removed, including any mud that is dried to the outside of the hooves. Since Monte is essentially a white horse, she understands that he will have stains on his coat. But no dirt is allowed! E got to work...

This actually allowed Monte more time to acclimate to the new arena. He was calmed by the grooming and was ready to work when she led him through the gate.

E used her Western tack, as this all we have at the moment and it is all that Monte knows. E and Monte worked on staying on the wall and not cutting the corners. They also practiced walking diagonals across the arena. This all sounds so very simple, but until the horse and rider are in sync, it can be difficult to accurately "steer" the horse.

Yesterday, E tacked up at the horse barn and practiced these skills a little more. Monte was very energetic, so she spent some time in the round pen first. He's so much easier to move and responds to her much more quickly than Curly ever has.

Practicing "new" skills...

I was curious what his actual height is - when asked lately, I've just said, "He's small!" And he is. The tape we used put him at 14.3 hands. It's not the most accurate measure, but I bet it is pretty close. Curly, on the other hand, is closer to 15.3 hands. (When we arrived at Black Walnut on Thursday, the barn manager asked if Monte was the horse that E had grown out of....she was a little surprised when I said that no, he was the one she had just gotten. I'm sure they think of him as a little pony when compared to the huge warm bloods that most English riders use!)

Curly the goofball

The weather is so perfect today - so I played hooky from a class I was signed up for (a work thing) and skipped out to the barn instead. And it was glorious!

While cleaning Curly's stall, I released him into the round pen which still has a bit of standing water on one side. Curly walked right up to the water, gingerly tip-toed into the middle of the puddle and then proceeded to blow bubbles in it with his big ol' nose. He then would lift his head up high, curl his lips back and snort. Such a funny guy!

And of course, I didn't bring my camera today.