I Rode My Horse! (First Ride)

The title says it all. After six months of hard work I got to ride my horse for the very first time.

I started the session by longeing Gambler in a figure-eight shape around two barrels. He caught on to the new exercise quite quickly. Next I sent him over a jump once or twice, because I know he loves that. It is really difficult to send him over the jump from the ground though, because the rope gets caught on the jump standards. It will be easier to play with jumps once I can ride him comfortably walk/trot.

Then I longed him for a while, and realized that while I've been focused on other things his transitions have gotten pretty gross. When I asked him to canter he just jump-bucked into one or two strides before falling back into the trot. When I increased my pressure he fell back into his old habit of stopping and backing up. I was going to pressure him to go forward, but then he started backing up toward the horse-eating trees. Aha! Instead I asking him to keep backing up and then we played the circling game right underneath the scary trees. Granted, it wasn't a windy day, but I say that's a huge step in the right direction.

After that, I asked Mom to hold Gambler while I did mounting prep. I set up the camera at this point, but afterwards I found out that it ran out of memory and stopped recording only a few seconds in. I started out like I have before, standing on the mounting block rubbing Gambler all over his neck and back. After leaning over his back and then jumping up and laying over him sideways; I finally jumped right up onto his back. The first time was so smooth and perfect - I don't think I touched his flank with my foot at all. I caught Gambler (and myself) by surprise. I didn't even know I was going up; it just happened. So weird. Anyway, I sat up there for a little while rubbing him on the neck and rear and then I got off. I got on two more times (at least once on both sides). The last time I asked Mom to lead him just a couple steps forward because the light was fading and I didn't have time to put a legitimate first ride on him. He was a little grumpy, meaning that he turned his head around and tried to bite my foot, but he didn't spook at all.

Since I didn't get any good pictures or video, here are the gorgeous fall pictures I took at the barn on Thursday. I will try to get good videos/pictures of Gambler's official second first ride.

Rainy Day

It stormed most of the day today, so I was unable to do any serious work (or play) with Gambler today. Of course, I still went out to see him. I couldn't possibly give up the opportunity to see my horse. Even six months later, I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that I have my own horse. I love him so much.

Since we couldn't go out to the arena, I spent some time grooming Gambley in the cross-ties. I know I've said it before, but I am so proud of how far he has come in the last six months. I could be discouraged that six months later I'm still unable to ride him, but that's not what matters. It's the little things that show me how far we've progressed together. The little things like standing in the cross-ties without moving all over the place, standing calmly in the aisle as I clip the cross-ties on, not freaking out when I walk away to grab the camera, not climbing the walls when I fly-spray him, not having a panic attack when scary geese fly over. We have a bond. He trusts me. That means so much more to me than any fancy show horse could.  

I took the time to comb his mane. Doesn't it look beautiful? There is one place where a poorly fitting blanket rubbed his mane off (before I got him), but the rest of his mane is thick and gorgeous. 

This is his, "Mom protect me from the scary birds!" face. 

The scary birds.