The story of my Big Girl Pants and how Riley thought he could outsmart me. **Picture heavy

Saturday I spent the day in the city the pups walking around a really cool arts festival. I had to feed that evening and I had been offered the chance to go ride at a nearby indoor (but not until 7pm or so), but I didn't want to make it a late night. I opted instead to see what kind of information Riley had retained from his lunging session the day before. Again, I generally don't lunge that much, but I also want to know that it wasn't a fluke that he was so well behaved. It also wasn't nearly as muggy as the day before and he's plenty fit, so off we went.

Wait, where are they taking my bff?

We started off well enough. Relaxed and forward. But while we were working his best bud was leaving to go to a new home so he was taken from the paddock next to us, and his herd mates started galloping around like a couple of butt heads. Still he stayed focused on my verbal cues and was attentive. We changed directions and I could feel the tension beginning. There was a time where any time I tried to lunge him tracking right we'd have a major blow up. He'd get frazzled, I'd get frustrated and it never really ended well. Since then, I've been able to learn some really valuable tools (while watching him pull the same shit with my trainer), so I'm well able to deal with whatever he throws at me.



His temper tantrum can be best explained in a series of film stills (since I'm sure no one wants to watch a 6 minute video)

Tracking right, looking rather innocent, until his friends galloped up and away again and I dared to ask him to pick up the right lead canter.

Then, he turns in for a stand off. He grows roots and won't move, so I have to carefully reel him in and put him back on a small circle going in the direction I want him to go.

Again, trying to get to his flank to move him forward, he's being a stubborn fool. ps. This is where I am regretting leaving my gloves in my back pocket, idiot.

After finally getting around to his hindquarters, I send him forward with the lunge whip (forward is the only answer here)

I actually didn't care that he bolted (again, he was moving forward), we were in a fairly enclosed area, but I was not about the let go and he doesn't fight for long (I wouldn't do this with every horse)

Haha, legs! What the hell are you doing Riley? You'll also notice I dropped the whip, he understands that as a cue to whoa, but also gets very nervous of the whip when you are facing him.

Finally got him to settle...

And back to business, we walk, trot, cantered tracking right and ended on a positive note. All of this because I insisted he pick up the correct lead. Cheeky.

Sunday, I was lucky enough to watch a lesson taught by the great grand priz show jumper, Michael Walton. Oh, and his farm is breath-taking:

My view of the lesson.

While I couldn't hear much of what he said, it's always neat to watch a rider who is much, much better than you receive instruction. There's always something to learn and he really stressed on this horse's quality of the canter to help it jump better. He was insightful, talkative and rewarded the rider when she deserved and asked her to repeat the exercise or explain what went wrong when it didn't go to plan. I don't doubt that she got her money's worth and I would love to take a lesson with him at some point.

After lunch we headed back to the barn and I put on my big girl pants. Drove around to Riley's field, caught him and tacked him up. As you probably remember, our last solo hack was a bit of a failure... but I was ready this time around. I was able to even get on just using a bucket! Success! So I sat tall and headed away from his field and up the driveway to the road. It's roughly a mile or so back to the barn and we would have to pass some scary things along the way. He didn't have a buddy to help him out, so this was going to be a true test of our trust for each other.He marched happily away from his buddies (they followed us along the fence line, and we turned away from them and down the road to the corner of horse-eating things:

This little pinto donkey is a royal trouble maker. He was on the left side of the road and all of the horses freak out at him. He is also the boss of his little herd, so he's brazenly come up to the fence line giving you the stink eye. The funny part this time was some guy across the street goes, "Watch out for the donkey"!!!!!!

Cue JAWS theme song. Riley stopped in his tracks, started to back up and thought about spinning. I booted him forward and talked to him and he walked by these giving them the hairy eye ball but not freaking out. The funny part was that while he was backing up and being a weanie, the farm owner was behind us in her truck, when he settled and she drove by she told me how well I handled him.

We were able to get on the grass along the fence line and trot up to the barn with little fussing at all. He's really loving the Dr. Bristol and I can finally take a solid feel of his mouth and get some really nice work out of him. We got back to the barn and I realized my fellow hacking buddies were all the way across the 28 acre field, so I hopped off, grabbed a bucket to get back on in that field and rode over to them. Across the stream and up and down hills. He was great. Once we met up with them we practiced ride away from them and back again. He was hesitant at first, but I was able to ride him completely out of sight, when he got silly or whinnied for them, I put him to work doing figure eights and transitions. At one point we were walked away from the barn and I told them I was going to trot away and he refused, this time I was quick with my correction and made him canter up the hill and away. Such a good dude.

Some highlights:

Leading the way. We mostly made him lead because his buddy cannot stand not being first. We rode all over the farm, but didn't do anything too serious.

Riding by ourselves in the big field, riding away from his friends and the barn

Wild mane! I need to pull this soon! Riding back toward his buddies.

We hopped off at the top of the hill (near where I've been lunging him) and he was perfect walking back to his pasture.

He's such a dreamboat. Love him.

He got a well-deserved granola bar and a nice grooming before heading back out with his friends. I think next weekend I will bring him in for a spa day and get a new conformation photos of him. He needs a good bath (he's got crappy fungus on his back legs), a bridle path and his mane pulled. I might also tidy up his tail if he'll let me. We're gearing towards a little TB specific hunter/jumper type show at the beginning of June just to give him some exposure and hopefully some xc schooling in between.