Day 17—First ride. Finally!
04/August/09 08:20 PM
It
was driving me nuts to have to wait so long to ride
him, but he just wasn't ready until today. He was
fearful and jumpy and just not trusting me enough and I
think we would have had a disaster had I not waited
until that went away.
I got on him yesterday and flexed his neck a little, and then had my first real ride today. Reb helped on the ground and he responded really well to that. Walked, turned, and he even decided to trot a little on his own. It was if he just wanted to see what it felt like, then he settled back into a walk. I think he was more relaxed than I was, and there wasn't even a single oh @#^$ moment. He needs some time to get his balance under my weight, but that will come and he was actively looking for it. He naturally sits back and uses his hind end and was even trying to do that under saddle in his turns, which is impressive for a horse with experience under saddle, nevermind on a first ride. I am expecting good things from this boy.
I think I'm a little big for him, but as he matures he will fill out.
Once we get the first week of riding and basic skills down I think we can really make some progress.
I got on him yesterday and flexed his neck a little, and then had my first real ride today. Reb helped on the ground and he responded really well to that. Walked, turned, and he even decided to trot a little on his own. It was if he just wanted to see what it felt like, then he settled back into a walk. I think he was more relaxed than I was, and there wasn't even a single oh @#^$ moment. He needs some time to get his balance under my weight, but that will come and he was actively looking for it. He naturally sits back and uses his hind end and was even trying to do that under saddle in his turns, which is impressive for a horse with experience under saddle, nevermind on a first ride. I am expecting good things from this boy.
I think I'm a little big for him, but as he matures he will fill out.
Once we get the first week of riding and basic skills down I think we can really make some progress.
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Day 14—2 weeks in
02/August/09 09:35 PM
Looking
back over the first two weeks, I lost almost a week to
rain and mud. If I do this again, I think I'll need an
indoor arena. I should be further along than this.
Got up in the stirrups today a number of times. He did just fine. Didn't mind if I hung out there, either. I am worried about riding. He's a fearful boy and while most of the time he can control it well, when he does loose it it's explosive. He goes 3 or 4 feet straight up.
Since I'm 2 weeks in I thought I'd do a little assessment. We've done well with haltering, leading, simple obstacles, saddling, weight on him. His work at liberty has been and continues to be excellent, directions, speed, turns, alignment, scary stuff coming at him and touching him. He's fairly good with his front feet, but still has to learn to let me hold them a bit after I pick them up. Still need some work in back. We got some pretty impressive kicking at first, and now he's settling down a bit. No problem with ropes around or near them today, although I could see he still didn't like it much. Yields his front end to the lead, his hind to where my leg will be. I want to work on forward motion off leg pressure before I really ride him, so I'm hoping to work on that starting tomorrow.
He still hates but tolerates the white grocery bag, and I still hate it too. He started ground driving well, and we began working on rollbacks. Ground tying is not bad.
He started testing me today, so I had to be a little firmer with him. His intelligence is both an asset and a problem!
I would really like to get him under saddle this week before I have to leave town, but I also don't want to rush him if he's not ready. We shall see.
Got up in the stirrups today a number of times. He did just fine. Didn't mind if I hung out there, either. I am worried about riding. He's a fearful boy and while most of the time he can control it well, when he does loose it it's explosive. He goes 3 or 4 feet straight up.
Since I'm 2 weeks in I thought I'd do a little assessment. We've done well with haltering, leading, simple obstacles, saddling, weight on him. His work at liberty has been and continues to be excellent, directions, speed, turns, alignment, scary stuff coming at him and touching him. He's fairly good with his front feet, but still has to learn to let me hold them a bit after I pick them up. Still need some work in back. We got some pretty impressive kicking at first, and now he's settling down a bit. No problem with ropes around or near them today, although I could see he still didn't like it much. Yields his front end to the lead, his hind to where my leg will be. I want to work on forward motion off leg pressure before I really ride him, so I'm hoping to work on that starting tomorrow.
He still hates but tolerates the white grocery bag, and I still hate it too. He started ground driving well, and we began working on rollbacks. Ground tying is not bad.
He started testing me today, so I had to be a little firmer with him. His intelligence is both an asset and a problem!
I would really like to get him under saddle this week before I have to leave town, but I also don't want to rush him if he's not ready. We shall see.