Seventeenth and Eighteenth Rides

I am spelling these numbers right, right? The more I stare at them, the less they look like words. Oh well, the important part is . . . EIGHTEEN RIDES (it turns out that I miscounted and he bucked me off on the sixteenth ride not the fifteenth)!Granted, these are pretty lame rides. In fact, I debated with myself for some time whether I could count these last two as rides. I was on the horse and the horse was moving so it was a ride right? Granted neither time I asked the horse to move and I only asked him to stop once. But I should explain in more detail.

On Saturday I mounted him a couple times the same way as I did in our last session. He was grumpier than the last time because I asked him to hold still for a long period of time. Gambler does not like to hold still! I don't have any pictures, but he was really good. He did nip my leg once. He also walked away from the mounting block after I mounted. I jumped off right away because I hadn't solidified the one-rein stop yet, but he wasn't acting out of fear or discomfort. He just discovered that he could walk away so he did. 

On Sunday, I started where I had left off on Saturday: the one-rein stop. I asked Gambler to flex laterally on both sides at the halt and then I led him around and asked him to stop by pulling him to a one-rein stop on the ground. Once I felt that he understood I mounted up again. This time, I introduced the stick as a riding implement. Some horses who are okay with objects on the ground are suddenly afraid when those objects appear above and around their heads. Gambler isn't one of those horses. For the moment I am only using the stick to keep him from biting me by moving his head around, but soon I will use it to ask for turns. 

The plan for the day was to ask him to walk forward and then to pull him into a one-rein stop. I had a feeling that I wouldn't need to ask him to move forward. Sure enough, he walked off on his own. The first picture in this post was taken just before I asked for the one-rein stop. He moved his feet around a little and then came to a complete stop. Success! At that point I dismounted and called it a day.