Maiden Voyage

We had beautiful weather on Saturday (30* with no wind) so I headed out to the barn. I spent half of the day cleaning stalls, digging my back doors out of the snow drift so I could open them and doing a few other things in the barn that needed to be done.

I knew the lovely weather wasn’t going to last all day so I decided to stop what I was doing and play with ponies. I got Cat out and cleaned her up. She’d managed to find some mud and looked more like a buckskin vs. a palomino. Once she was cleaned up I grabbed my stick and my whirly gig (a spinning/flapping flag thing that I bought at the dollar store) and we headed out to find some decent footing.

She was a bit full of herself when I started LFR but it was slick so she wasn’t moving too fast. A few changes of direction and her mind was back on me. The one thing I’ve always loved about Cat is that no matter how much she gets distracted when you put her to work it only takes about 2 laps before she’s back on track and listening to me. I didn’t want to get her too hot and sweaty so I decided now was the perfect time to grab my whirly gig and desensitize her. It really flaps and cracks and tends to send most horses over the edge. It didn’t take long before she relaxed, cocked a leg and dropped her head.

I walked her back up to the barn and grabbed my mounting block and did a bit of Jefferies with her. She was staring at the neighbors place. Their grandson had gotten his 4-wheeler stuck in the snow/mud and couldn’t get it out. I just laid up on her back rubbing her barrel. She was very relaxed and soft. I’ve heard CA say he can tell if they will buck on not by how their ribs feel. I spent about 10 minutes or so just getting on and off and rubbing her when I decided to just sit on up. She wasn’t worried about it at all.

This is probably where most people would have stopped and said “I really shouldn’t push it”. But then I’m not most people. :D I flexed her to the left and then flipped the lead rope over her head and flexed her to the right. I asked her to walk off but she wasn’t sure what I wanted. My squeeze when to a cluck and finally to a spank. Once she moved I stopped. She is very smart so it didn’t take long before she was walking off by just a squeeze/cluck. I walked her over to the barn and then flipped the rein over her head and turned her around. She decided to go out to the pasture so I let her go out for a little bit and then turned her around again. I wanted to make the decision on where I stopped and where I got off so I flipped my lead over her head and turned her away from the barn and back towards the mounting block. I flexed her a bit more and then hopped off. Next time I’ll have to use reins!

Next it was Lucy’s turn. She was pretty full of it too but did well. She kept calling back to Cat in the barn, (I think they’ve become too good of buddies) but she did listen to what I wanted. She wasn’t thrilled with the whirly gig which surprised me. Normally she could care less. She finally got over it and stood so I could flap it on all 4 sides.

Sunday wasn’t quite as nice as expected so I didn’t get to ride Cat again like I had planned. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get some more time in on her. I really do need to get her saddled again. It has probably been 6 months or so since I’ve saddled her up. Oh well – we’ll get there one day.