Centered in the Saddle

I spent the day at the farm on Saturday. It was wonderful.

I met Lizzie up there to ride Lydia and start getting to know her. I’m going to be riding Lydia for awhile, and I’m really excited! She’s a sweet girl with some fun challenges. It’s going to be great!

After that I took Turbo for a spin. We did some deep serpentines and trot poles. He was very helpful when I was setting up cones. He made sure that purple cone was placed just right.

Actually, it was really sweet. He followed me around most of the time to set things up. He stayed right by my shoulder, very politely. Never in my space, never in front, never behind. It was adorable (and made me happy that he was focusing on me before I even got on).

Then I grabbed Poe for some groundwork/re-introduction time. I rode him for a brief time about a year ago. He is an interesting horse because he’s a big, sweet guy with a naturally big extended trot. It’s a lot of fun to ride him, but he’s not very confident, so every once in a while, with little to no warning, he just flips out. I’ve come off him this way before and got a bit spooked of riding him. However, since I’ve been working so much on feeling the horse’s every movement and “riding the feet,” I’m more confident that I’ll be able to anticipate when an issue might be approaching. (Hopefully these are not famous last words.)

This is Poe. He is hiding his goblin.

Too bad his name is so silly. When I hear “Poe” I either think of a po’ boy or that creepy old kids’ show, Teletubbies. Silver lining: I’m all about nicknames, so I will likely actually call him Poe Boy. Or maybe Edgar Allen Poe.

Anyway, we worked on groundwork – walking at different speeds, stopping, starting, turns on the hindquarters and on the forehand, and backing up straight. We also just kinda hung out and relaxed together for awhile. It was nice.

All around, it was a successful day with the ponies. Life is good.