Exciting!!! Or not...

 

 My original plan was to ride Lyric Thursday! I even convinced Kelli to come babysit us... in turn I had to go to dinner with her. :) She had shoes, she had her teeth done, she had been treated for ulcers, we had done groundwork... and Cindy was coming that morning to check saddle fit. And then, Meg got into my head about her not being ready to carry a rider because she can't lift her sling yet. And I got in my head about not knowing if she had brakes... And then it rained (YAY!! Thank you God!) and so Cindy showed up at noon instead of 9:30 so we didn't have to deal with the rain. So I had pretty much written it off. I figured what's another week or two.. or three. We had plenty of groundwork to do.

So Cindy came and put Dan's jump saddle on her and said it would work but I would need to shim it up front. Because of her being butt high. Ha ha. Dude, it's bad! And the wedges in her hind feet only didn't help the situation. She also said to use the half pad. But that it would work. Cool!! Yay! That was quick and easy. We didn't bother checking the dressage saddle, but it should be the same. But I'll ride her in the jump saddle for awhile anyways. No need to be tempted to sit on her back. 

 

After I rode Dan and worked Funny I grabbed her to work her. Unfortunately the horses were all up by the well house and nowhere near the arena so we had a lot of stopping on our way up to the arena. I encouraged her to go into pillar 1 and then walk forward with a little whip flick and treats. And we managed to get to the arena. And bless him, by the time we got up there Dan finally meandered up and hung out. Huge help! 

 

We did our pillar work and then I did some of the lunging. She was overtracking by a whole hoof print!!!! She didn't quite go as deep in the neck as I was hoping, but... I saw her jugular pulse going, so maybe she's deep enough. Yay! 

So then I put the bridle on her. Surprisingly, it fit the same as it fits Dan. Like I used the same holes. Same bit and everything. She took the bit after a minute... she wasn't as willing to accept it as Funny or Dan.. yet. She did take it though and she can't figure out how to eat treats with it in yet. Ha ha. Funny too. But it wasn't too bad. She didn't fuss with it or chomp or anything other than a minutes worth of investigating. Then we walked off and she was good. We walked with no contact and then I halted and put slight contact on the reins and she stopped. Then we walked on and did it again. We did it about 8 times, including walking with slight contact. And then we trotted in hand and I asked her to walk with slight contact and she walked.. and then halted. Good girl! She was so good. 

 




So I thought... well... man, I really want to get on to just see... And shame on me as I didn't have my helmet because I wasn't planning on it. But I was too lazy to walk back down and thought... you know, it's gonna be okay. So I walked her up to the arena fence and climbed up on the boards. She stood, even when I fell off the fence. Ha ha.. I climbed back up again and then slid my leg over. She didn't do anything, so... I climbed on. Bareback. :) For *MY* first ride on my OTTB...chestnut.... mare....with stormcat... ha ha! And she was PERFECT! There was a split second where my brain went "Oh no... you're about to die" and then it went..."Nope, we're good". She didn't do anything, but I just felt the energy panic for a moment and then it was fine. She stood... I asked her to walk with gentle leg pressure and she walked off. She walked super slow and a little drunk like... but she walked. I asked her to halt with gentle rein pressure and my voice and she did. Then we walked a little more... and halted again. We steered (kind of) both ways (although to be fair.. I did have my phone in my hand so was one handed steering). And then we quit. I got off, told her she was amazing, and turned her loose. :) 

 

Now I can't wait to ride for real. :) But we'll keep doing our homework. I'm not going to count that as one of my 15 rides because it was literally 2 minutes. But who knows? At this rate, I may be able to count it as one of my rides because the days seem to be rapidly accelerating and how is it already half way through Oct!?!

She had a nice good roll in the sand outside the arena and was grunting like a pig. Hee hee. Good girl! She also nickered at me for dinner.... so, but still!








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