Got to ride my behemoth again today!! Our first solo ride and all in all he was great.The weather here is gorgeous this weekend, I was SWEATING today. I know! I would be jealous too! So I grabbed little girl and headed to the inlaws. Unfortunately everyone had plans and was about to be leaving. Which means no babysitter! I was ok with that, its still fun to just groom and stuff cookies in him.
Thankfully though the father in law didn't have to leave right yet and offered to watch her. Woot! Rusty was still in the front pasture by himself so I had to go out and find big boy in the two big pastures. I got really lucky! They were all hanging out below the gate to the lane. I called Cisco and he came up to the gate and I gave him a cookie and put his halter on.
I managed to keep everyone else in the other pasture and headed to the house. Rusty had stayed up at the top gate while I walked to get Cisco, but about halfway back he saw us. Ugh. He hollered really loud and came galloping over to us. This is the point it crosses my mind that this might have been a bad idea! But thankfully Cisco kept his mind and I shooed Rusty off. We scooted through the gate real fast while Rusty went and socialized with the other two horses and we were home free!
I parked Cisco by the chair with tack and brushes in it. I decided to try the bro in laws saddle this time, since he was not riding. (its an older, heavy CC Saddlery saddle) It felt so much more substantial and secure when I rode Stormy in it that day.
Cisco was pretty up about being out by himself and next to a new horse. I had to get his attention quite a few times and his 'park' was broken, lol. But a few corrections (back up a few strides and back forward to your original spot please!) and he settled down and I got him tacked up pretty quick.
Right as I was about to finish cinching up and get on my husband calls. He says a guy is coming out in a bit to possibly take our bulldog. We have been trying to give him away for a while, we don't have the time for an outside dog. Anyway! I'm like, well, I'm fixing to get on my horse, what do you want me to do about it?? So I ask the FIL if he can go run him about while I ride a little. So nice to have such great in laws. So he goes to do that and I hop on big boy.
Right off I can tell he is feeling pretty high. He's pretty sure rocks, birds, buckets etc, are all about to jump at him, lol. He's much more brave with a buddy! (Aren't we all?) So I decide to hit the round pen first, planning on racking some of his goofiness off. We had to go by the new trailer to get there, between it and a big lawn mower trailer. The space was not small but it took almost a minute of gentle coaxing to get Cisco through it, lol. Oh, and I forgot, he tried three times to just plain turn back around to the pasture, uhh no sir!! I pretty firmly put a stop to that each time and didn't come across it again.
So we make it through the gate a little hurriedly, and I give him his head to see what he was going to do. Well he starts from a walk and builds up to where he was loping a few strides every so often (btw, loping on a gaited horse is WEIRD). So I put a stop to that and he threw a little hissy fit. Some sort of half lifting off the ground half spin thing, lol. I'm mot sure really what it was but it earned him a growl and some quick tight circles and did not reappear, thankfully! He is never very vehement in his protestations thankfully!
Well the man wanting to get our dog showed up another 10 minutes or so later. I was definitely not done with my ride. The FIL told me to just let Cisco loose in there but I thought what the heck I'll just ride him over there. So I head up the road, and he's being pretty good! All this time we are calling for the dog and he is not responding at all -_-. So I decided to rack down the road a bit thinking the horse moving faster would entice him, uh no. So then I hear our new mini schnauzer puppy start going crazy (we left him tied up by the tack spot) and I thought oh no, that bulldog is tearing him up. So I nudge Cisco and we go tearing back up the road. And it is AWESOME! He gave me the smoothest, most awesome rack ever, head up, ears pricked, so fun!!
So I finally got the dog to follow me. I jump off and we are chatting with the man that came, and all of a sudden the stupid dog comes up and bites poor Cisco in the back leg! Ugh, he really liked that -_-. So I get him calmed down and they finally catch the darn dog. The man says he will take him and we are rid of him! (Although he comes back thirty mins later with him all bloody, his dogs and he don't get along, sigh)
Anywho I jumped back on my steed and rode him back up the road. I finally got him to relax quite a bit, which was my plan all along. It was so gorgeous out, riding a good horse, just us nature! Loved it. We worked on woahs and patience standing still. Also on staying at a slower walk instead of the back b
So a productive day! I'd like to do a ride like that every week, to get him trusting me more and knowing its cool to be without his friends. Which really he did quite well I think, he never hollered for them or got real antsy, etc. Good boy! But I definitely want to do more of this before we trailer out somewhere. I think he would be a bit of a basket case! Which I'm sure a steady buddy would definitely help.
I leave you with an adorable pic of my little girl and our new mini schnauzer puppy, Toto. She loves leading him with the leash.
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