Test ride -- Unbridled Lad

Yesterday I headed out to the farm to meet my fate. As I mentioned, my friend offered her semi-retired schoolmaster to play around with while Riley gets the kinks worked out with my trainer. Lad is a wonderful, kind gentleman of a horse with plenty of spunk. He always greets you with a happy face and wants to be picked from the field first. In fact, he hates being left out and will gallop around whinnying if he gets left by himself! His owner has even made a facebook page for him that you can see here.

At the Thoroughbred Celebration Show in 2012/13?

I've known Lad almost as long as I've known Riley as he was at our old barn too. What I knew about him was that he LOVED to jump, would tell on you if you rode poorly, and he squeals when he's happy.

At Plantation with his owner in 2011

We loaded up and headed to a nearby indoor to school with another horse and he got off, looked around and took a deep breath. Been there, done that. His owner walked him once around the indoor which was set with jumps from the Jimmy Wofford clinic that happened earlier that day and I got on. It's so neat riding a horse that knows that it's doing! When you ride a green horse all the time, one, you kind of forget how to ride gracefully and two, you forget that horses can do things on their own with little coaxing. We walk-trot-cantered in each direction... and holy crap! Best. Canter. Ever. I was grinning like a fool. Since he's kind of out of shape (and so am I) we started off with a single fence to jump and then added more and we both got to know each other.

The dude LOVES to jump! With that note, his owner warned me to to keep my leg on, stay in my thigh, and GRAB MANE.

Warming up, both of us looking like we know what we're doing (ahem, he does)

First little X. Boiiiiing!

Really Lad? I'm just hanging on here.

Good boy through the combination.

Weeeee! At least I am looking up and I'm not climbing up his neck.

Now I'm sure he probably looks green through all of these, but if you see above, he's just an exuberant jumper. Regardless of the jump height, we were jumping much higher! I not used to a horse taking me to the fences and I definitely struggled with just sitting back and letting him do his job. In the end I think we struck a good balance and he never got frustrated with me. I couldn't get over just how comfortable he was to ride (he's wider, like Riley) and his squealing into the canter was the cutest thing ever. He was so happy to take me to all of the fences and the only one he even considered looking at was a liverpool that I was terrified of and probably made him back off of. We would up jumping it a bunch of times, including as a part of a 3 jump line (I think a 3-4 stride to a 2-3 stride. It also probably looks like I have a death grip on his mouth, but I promise you I was riding with a neck strap and had my hands buried in his thick mane.

I can't wait to ride him again. I feel like he has so much to teach me and I think one of the biggest takeaways was that I cannot stiffen up when I ride him or he becomes unbearably uncomfortable and you just bounce all over him. He forced my hip angle to stay soft and open and to keep my leg long and my core tight. Boy am I feeling it today! Walking up stairs was a real challenge!

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get Riley out hacking to work on what my trainer has been practicing with him.

Radio silence.

Where did I go?

Not to worry, I'm still here. Work has been busy, life has been hectic. Riley has had a little time off after his Come to Jesus meeting with my friend. Since then he's had two trainer rides with Emily which were very successful and we've come up with a plan of action.

Oh, there's another reason for the silence... I bet you won't believe what it is?

Weather.

Roughly the halfway point between my house and the barn

Yikes

Yep, it rained for 2 days straight and EVERYTHING flooded. Luckily both my house and the farm were spared, but getting around anywhere was tough. The tack room did flood due to a backed up drain, but nothing we couldn't handle. The roads around the farm were completely flooded, so even hacking was out of the question.

Riley was moved to a new field, which was apparently very exciting for him and his Bad Boy Club, and he's been enjoying every minute of his unintentional vacation.

Muddy Mud Skipper, looking feral.

Emily did take him on a 2 hour hack earlier this week to address some of his nappy behavior. He pulled plenty of shenanigans with her, but she stayed the course and insisted (gently this time) that he do what she asked. He's definitely getting a little big for his britches and thinking that he has better ideas than his rider. She also said that remarkably even when they were miles away from the barn he STILL knew which was to spin to return home. She practiced cantering and galloping him in one of our big fields to check for brakes (still there, thanks new bit) and rode him away from his hacking buddy over and over again until he got the idea that forward is the only answer he needs to provide. Certainly his cheeky/green behavior is not going to be fixed in just a couple of rides, so we came up with a plan moving forward.

Trainer rides will continue (she will hack him out either alone or in company)... I can ride and/or lunge him on the property (140 acres) to practice what I've learned recently with him, but follow through has to be 100% on my end. In the meantime, one of the other women in the co-op has graciously offered her 14 year old school master horse to ride to get my jumping sea legs back. He's a gorgeous dark bay OTTB (Unbridled Lad) who incredibly talented. While he will pack an 8 year old around, he's not an easy ride by any means and will have plenty to teach me. I'm excited to get to know him better and to have another horse to ride in addition to Riley. I'll likely enter Riley in another HT in a few weeks and Emily will ride him there to get some confidence under his belt. Lad and I may even go to a couple of little jumper schooling shows once he's fit.

It's all very exciting and I'm happy with the pace of our progress. I know that if our ring was already finished we'd be much further along in our training, but we'll get there. Patience.

EDIT: I'm going to test ride Lad tonight in a nearby indoor!