Riding Lesson #6: a milestone

Another mile stone! I wanted to move my lesson a back an hour so it would not be as warm. I knew that I might have to get started on my own. Toby the dog was the only one in the driveway when I got there. He barked, looked and the house, and looked at me. It was obvious that he knew his dad should be around.

I greeted the black lab and headed to the barn. Now when you work with haffies, they tend to looks a lot alike. Drew is unique that he is a roan. I was pretty sure that I could pick him out if there were not too many in the barn. Mostly horses in training stay in the barn so along with a paint, a gray welsh pony, a big chestnut were two haflingers. Between the two one was roan and a gelding and the other was not.

Sure that I had the right horse, I pulled Drew out. 9:00 I groomed him and picked out his feet. Except for a brief fight about his feet, it was quick work. 9:07. Finding the saddle and pad took a bit of doing, as I have not gotten all this together before. Plus I kept dragging my feet. 9:10. Saddling, getting the bridle, and finally Drew was ready. 9:15. Well, I was not going to just stand there with a saddled horse so we headed to the arena. That was rather nerve racking walk.

When I got out there I mounted, Drew started to back. What the! Not a normal thing for him. I took stock of myself and realized that I was a little nervous. But we settled in and started walking around the ring. I walked and halted, my new feel good maneuver. If I feel nervous, I practice halting. Once I have the horse halting nicely I feel much better about life in general. A lot of walking and trotting, a few new things to spook at. When R got there he just got a training horse and came on out. We had a really good ride. I mean it was so normal! A perfectly normal thing. I wish I could ride more than once a week though.

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After my lesson I came home and waited. And waited. And watched Abby outside in the paddock for perhaps the last time. R showed up with a trailer to take her back to his farm. He is going to work with her for the next week or two so that if anyone wants to test ride her, they can. I am not sure if I will be able to ride her or not. After the training, I will work with her and hopefully find a really great home for her if she has not found one by then. So Abby may never come back to this property and that makes me a little sad.