First rides of the new year!

A few weeks ago, I made a post on my personal blog (a tumblr) about how not really riding has been driving me insane.  A few hours later, Dom had facebooked me and invited me to come out and ride at her farm.    I jumped at the chance, and met her and her friend Christine at the barn on the first day of the year.

We hung around the farm and got all caught up with the latest gossip,  and I got my fill of Ozzy backrubs.  Dom had a new horse coming in, but once the horse was dropped off and settled in his field, we tacked up Ozzy and JR and walked down to the outdoor arena.

Dom hopped on Ozzy first, and showed me his 'tricks'.  He oogled the jumps in the ring like he'd never seen a jump before, and tossed his head back and forth while showing off a few of his (many!) gaits.  I got to see his wariness of the mounting block - but I am hardly able to get on ponies from the ground, so we laughed at Oz as I climbed aboard from the block.

All I can really say about my ride is WOW.  He kept on pacing with me, and hey, I would've let him pace all day.  He was incredibly comfortable and had a huge stride.  His trot was ridiculous - comfortable and absolutely massive.  Gali's a big horse with a tiny stride, and I forget what it's like to ride a horse with actual movement sometimes.  Ozzy was a blast, and I was so impressed with his gaits and his brakes.  I need to teach Gali to 'ho' like Ozzy does... or, at all.

Afterwards, I hopped on JR, Dom's adorable lesson pony, to pop over a few low crossrails.  JR was so cute, but I felt huge on the (not all that little!) pony.  We trotted our first crossrail, and despite myself grabbing mane and exclaiming "That jump is HUGE!" when we first approached it, sailed over it cleanly.  I took him around once more and did the two jump line.  I cantered him into the line once more, and because I got up into my two point a stride too early, JR took a huge long spot and I landed half out of the saddle.  Ha!  That'll teach me.  We took the line once more, and I thanked the pony for forgiving me for being a mess. 

Overall, I had two fantastic rides on two great horses, and I can't wait to get myself down to that barn again to play.

Now, Saturday - oh boy.  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Lynn sent me a text earlier in the week reminding me that I was supposed to take a dressage lesson at Nicole's with her, and so I set up our lessons for Saturday morning.  When we got to the barn, the arena was still frozen, so we grabbed breakfast and waited for the sun to get a little higher in the sky.  It was great to catch up with Nicole and the owners of Aya, the mare I was going to ride.

We got back to the farm and Lynn tacked up the mare she was riding, Greta.  Her lesson seemed to go very well, and halfway through I walked up to the barn with Aya's 10 year old owner, tacked her up swiftly, and walked her down to the ring.  I figured I'd lunge the mare while catching the end of Lynn's ride.

Now, I've ridden Aya maybe ten times.  I took a lesson on her when I was evaluating Nicole's farm for Gali, and immediately fell in love with the mare.  She reminds me SO much of Cindy, the horse I grew up riding, in that her build is identical and her hissy fits are eerily similar.  I've trail ridden her and schooled her for her owner, and she's never really put a hoof out of line, other than some head tossing and shoulder-popping.  So, when Nicole told me to lunge her before getting on, I figured it was just a standard precaution since the mare's been out of work.

I hooked up the lunge line like I usually do - through one ring of the bit, over the poll, and clipped to the outside ring, and sent the mare off at a lazy walk.  I was half paying attention to Lynn's ride when I clucked the mare into a trot, and she leaped up, kicked out, bucked, and tried to drag me down the ring.  Apparently, she wasn't used to the poll pressure and it freaked her out.  Oooohkay... mares.

After that outburst, I moved her to the round pen and we finished our lunging without incident.  However, since I've barely ridden in months, I decided to bring her into the square pen, just so I'd have walls, for the start of the lesson.

Remember growing up, when all of your trainers told you to run your stirrups up before moving the horse?  Now take a second and remember all of the times you've moved your horse with the stirrups down, and how nothing has ever happened.

Well.

I walked Aya through the gate of the square arena, which is two round pens' worth of panels arranged to fit a small dressage ring.  I guess in her outburst on the lunge, her right stirrup had fallen down, and just as I hear Nicole say "Wait-", the mare explodes forward, dragging the door and the attached panels of the ring with her.  I had no idea what happened and thought that she'd stepped through a panel, and so with dread I tried hard to calm her down, and then I heard the stirrup on the other side and heard the door unhook.  All in all, she probably dragged the ring twenty feet, and she was panting but unscathed.  I took a few deep breaths as I checked her all over, and with Nicole laughing hysterically, thanked me for providing a lesson in why you run your stirrups up to the 10 year old, who was watching me pale-faced.

I thanked the mare profoundly for not panicking, and hopped aboard.  Once I was on, I noticed that the right stirrup was bent pretty badly, but since it was a peacock iron, I felt okay enough to ride in it.  Aya was a handful, and kept trying to drag me around and break into the canter, but she kept all four hooves on the ground and didn't even bat an eye at the arena gate that had nearly eaten her.   I kept on talking about how good of a horse she was, and how steady of a mare she's becoming, when six deer leapt out from behind the ring and ran into the woods, prompting her to take off for a few strides.  Nicole was laughing again, and said that it just wasn't my day!

Despite the arena, the half-stirrup, and the deer spooking the mare, I had an awesome ride.  Honestly, any horse that lets me get up on her after I ran her through the ring, doesn't even look at the gate that chased her, and who comes back from a genuine fear-bolt in three strides, is worth her weight in gold. 

Nicole and Aya's owners invited me to come ride her whenever I'm back in town, and I am SO going to take them up on that.