1 Day-2 Posts (Part 2)

Today is a an absolutely gorgeous fall day. Remember that post about how much I love fall? Well today is one of those fall days I was talking about. The air is crisp, the leaves are starting to change, the wind is blowing . . .oh. The wind. Gambler's favorite weather in the world world-not!

I was sure I'd have a spastic-crazy horse today. In fact, I was tempted to put off the western saddle another day, but the truth is: if you wait for the right conditions, you'll never get anything done. I'm not sure where I saw that, maybe on Pinterest somewhere. The point is I just have to keep moving forward with Gambler's training, regardless of the inconveniences.

So my mom and I brought in the horses, fed them, and then set up the arena. Since I didn't have anyone to fix jumps/poles for me (usually my brother does that), I had to set everything up in different places. Instead of longeing Gambler in one place and switching out the poles/jumps I set up jumps in different places so that all I had to do was move the circle. The system worked exceptionally well.

I warmed Gambler up by walking and trotting him over poles. I also cantered him over a single pole-an exercise to prepare him for cantering over jumps. So far I have only trotted him over jumps, but I want to try them at the canter soon. When I first got Gamby, I thought that I wouldn't be able to do any training until I could ride him. How wrong I was! I already have a good foundation of dressage and jumping, before ever getting on him. He always picks up his leads, he is exceptional at bending in circles and figure eights, and he is figuring out his balance over jumps too. That being said, I need to stop procrastinating and focus on the riding part of training him.

Once he was supple and listening to me, I groomed him and put on the western saddle. As I tightened the girth, he grunted and my heart dropped. That is what he did when he colicked a few weeks ago. However, he was acting like his cheerful self and had just pooped in his stall, so it was unlikely that he was colicky. My conclusion is that he wanted to see if I would take the saddle off. I finished tightening the girth without any more grunting, which affirmed my conclusion.

Once the saddle was on, I walked and trotted him over a pole in both directions. He was a little racey per usual, but he didn't buck once! The trot pole and jumping work has really paid off, he didn't throw his head up ewe-neck style today. I saw a lot of licking and chewing too, which shows me that he is starting to relax and accept the saddle. I had to go earlier than I would have liked, but overall I am very pleased with his performance today. Even though it was an incredibly windy day--even by my standards--Gambler was calm, relaxed, and responsive!