Happy Dance!!

This may be a stupid thing to be so excited about but I can’t help myself!!  I have been debating going to a horse show next Sunday…..do Halter and showmanship and the western walk/trot classes.  Problem…..I haven’t actually INTENTIONALLY trotted on Buddy!!!  The ground is so sloppy in my little “ring” that I just haven’t wanted to push it…..course, I haven’t even RIDDEN in a week or more so was thinking that I wouldn’t bother with the show…

Until today.  I got my show bridle in the mail from Meg today which just added to my “show fever” and I decided to suck it up and get on him and see what happens.  He is by no means the rambunctious sort, he’s pretty laid back and lazy mostly but he hasn’t been ridden and I was having a case of the “nerves” (surprise surprise right?) so I lunged him first – it would almost be more comforting sometimes if he’d explode and act like a fool on the line but NOOOOOO not Buddy.  Buddy walks and trots like he’s told.  He’ll lope too if I ask him enough but he’s perfectly happy to walk.  *sigh*  Today we had NO fight over the bucket.  I walked over, set it down, climbed up on it and climbed into the saddle.  No ifs ands or buts about it he couldn’t have cared any less.  That’s one hurdle we’re getting pretty good with thankfully.  So we walked off and did a few serpentines and circles in both directions, I asked for a trot and got NOTHING. 

My stirrups were uneven and it was throwing me off balance so I stopped him and fixed my stirrups FROM HIS BACK with the reins just laid across his neck!!!  This boy is fantastic for a 3 year old!!  So level headed.  I walked him a few more minutes with my stirrups in the better position and asked for a trot again….still nothing so I stopped him and asked him to back up.  NOTHING.  I don’t know if it was the different bit or if he was just having a ……moment LOL.  (I realized when trying to set up my new headstall that the bit attachment wouldn’t work with my Myler full cheek snaffle so switched him to a copper rollered D ring)

So I realized just how much work we had ahead of us.  *sigh*  We did a few more walk/whoa transitions with me asking for him to back and by the 3rd transition he was backing very easily and relaxedly (is that a word?? LOL)  I asked him to walk off again and in the driest, least mud sucky part of the pen asked for a trot – he did it and once he got going, he relaxed and did VERY well.  We’re going to keep working on it but I’m happy!!

After a few more times around the pen, we headed out across the field to the short woods trail that goes up around back of my parents property.  There’s a board and bucket at the opening of the trail and he was convinced it was going to eat him.  He was so worried about that that he didn’t notice the downed tree branch he was about to step on so when the “fingers” of it touched him he kind of jumped and snorted but he did well and kept on going.  I hit a branch with my head and it broke off and hit his butt – he jumped a little but kept on going.  There are a lot of low hanging trees from all the heavy snow/ice this winter – I meant to ask dad about that because I figured that they would have straightened back up again but maybe not.  When we got to the top field at dads I was a bit nervous because there are some tires, an ice shack and a boat that are on the edge of the one field and for some reason EVERY horse is spooky in that area – even BUCK was!!  He was ok until a bird flew up and he kind of spun out from under me but I didn’t fall.  My right foot came out of the stirrup and I slid left a little but when I said Whoa he did and then we continued on. 

We went and visited with my dad for a minute and even dad said he was a nice horse – anyone who knows him knows that although he bought Buck for me and never complained about hauling my ass to a horse show all thru school, he has a low opinion of horses and given my recent LONG list of injuries that are horse related, he keeps harping on me to find just ONE good one that can be trusted and that won’t kill me……he never hesitates to tell me that the horse I’m on is a nutbag but he said that Buddy’s a “good one”.  Now don’t anyone ask him if he said that, we all know that he’ll DENY DENY DENY!!  LOL