Yeehaw!

Well, we had our first ride yesterday (Friday). This little horse is such a find--I never thought I'd be on my mustang within a week, but he was ready for it, so we did it! I had a helper in the roundpen to help get him moving if need be, but we really didn't need too much help with that. I was surprised at how not sticky his feet were. I figured with him being so calm that getting him to move out would be troublesome, but that wasn't the case. But thanks Stacy for being there and helping to get us going!

And thanks to Jen from Happy Horse Tack in Ft Collins. She's great. She came out in the morning to do a saddle fitting on Cash and we found that he needs a saddle with semi-quarter horse bars. So I'll be doing some looking for a saddle to use on him that fits better than my big full quarter horse saddle. Thankfully, we had Bridget's saddle around and that fit him quite well, so we did our first ride in Bridget's saddle. (by the way, Bridget--I borrowed your saddle--thanks!)

The pictures you see in the post below are of stuff that we've been working on in the last week. Longeing on a line, desensitizing, Jeffries method stuff, stirrup driving, and flexing. And of course, our first ride.

He did great for the ride--we walked and trotted and worked on flexing and one rein stops so that he has a foundation for understanding stopping and turning. It took him a little while to figure out his feet and his balance with a rider when flexing, but he got it--and thankfully got it without falling over! He moved out nicely and it didn't take any work at all to get him trotting. The stirrup driving from the ground really helps with that. We only had one minor yeehaw moment when Stacy said the wind blew his tail up his butt and he did a butt-tuck scooch thing. But he didn't panic or explode and got his composure right back. I wouldn't like my tail between my butt cheeks if I didn't put it there either.

Again, a special thanks to Jen for coming out and doing a saddle fitting for us. I have Jen out to check the saddle fit on every horse I train, as I've learned the hard way that saddle fit matters. A lot.

Well, whew! The first ride is done and out of the way. Now to put some miles under his feet...