Thurs 9th Feb 2010
There were a few good reasons not to ride today, snow on the ground so slippery and frozen. I have, alas, got a very sore coccyx again which, when the ibuprofen wears off, start spasming so that I can hardly walk. What a disappointment, thought those days were behind me. Still, live in hope!
So, I went up to feed and decided to take my saddle and try it on. Duncs was completely relaxed about the saddle, having it on his back and girthing up. He walked about happily in it too so I thought I'd have a sit-on. It looked OK enough to sit on and when I got on, I realised it was good enough to ride on next time too. If anything, a little wide, could shim up the front...
Once on (NB, did not use stirrups to mount. Won't do for a while. Lucky D is so small!), I decided I wanted to walk to the gate. D had other ideas. Nothing as I lifted life and smooched. As I put my leg on, he started to step back but I built up the pressure very slowly with the rope (keeping my leg on) until I reached a sharp tap behind the leg at which point he stepped forward. It probably took 3 repeats to get to the gate. Then I got off, walked D through the gate and let him graze for a bit before going back to the "block".
By the 4th time of asking, D walked forward on ph 3 leg touch - also found it helped me saying "walk on" as that's the command he seems used to instead of a "smooch" or cluck. I was very pleased to finish on a positive note but more than that, I was delighted that the saddle was just not an issue. FANTASTIC!
No comments:
Post a Comment