Picking Up The Pace

Monday June 16 2008

My second real ride on Drum today. Mandy came out to give us a hand but we left the leadrope off this time. I mounted up and off we went. No messing around this time. Im feeling confident about my ability to ride Drum and that he is a no dirt horse.

Mandy walked around with us again to start with and we did quite a long trot with her, round the paddock and then a rein change. After that Mandy left us to it and off we went. Lots of practice looking up instead of at Drum. Thanks for reminding me Mandy ;)

Drum and I were out on a reasonably big circle around Mandy. I asked him to stay away from her and listen to me. He uses people on the ground as a bit of a comfort blanket so it is good knowing that I can make him go away from them without fuss. We managed some pretty straight lines, woohoo, and halting is no problem. We changed reins past Mandy, with a little bit o nappiness as he tried to stick by her but we got past when I told him I was serious.

Then I pulled up and told Mandy I was going to call it a day. No, she said, you can trot some more. And I did. And it was infectious. The more I trotted, the more I wanted to trot more! I wanted a good forward going, impulsive trot. I kept asking. We did it different ways. We got our direction sorted out. It was so good!

I am stoked after todays ride. I feel like I could go out and ride him on my own. I can see the hunt field now! Haha, maybe not tomorrow... But we'll get there.